by Gail Koger
“Do you think I could make that up?” Ziyad waved a hand at me. “I don’t have that kind of imagination.”
“Does anyone?” Maybe Zelrine thought the makeup made her look like a harmless goof. Which she wasn’t. She was credited with a hundred kills.
Bui stared up at me. “What on eyes?”
“They’re false eyelashes.”
“Pretty.”
Pretty they weren’t. “You ready to be my sidekick?”
“Me ready.” Bui scampered up my arm and took her place on my head.
“Remember. You have to be very still.”
“Me ’member.”
“The Kidd brothers just entered the shuttle bay,” Ziyad warned. “I can’t believe Fritjof is letting them wander around.”
My gaze flew to the view screen. Was my wonderful plan about to go toes up?
The vile pirates stopped in front of the energy field and stared in angry disbelief. Amos demanded, “Who are you?”
Lothel bared his holographic metal teeth in a truly scary smile. “I am Geir. This here is Micah, my brother.”
Quinn gave them the one-finger salute.
“I am Amos Kidd, and you are?” Wulf deadpanned.
His entire body vibrating with rage, Amos shouted, “No! No! No! You are not me.”
“Let the mind games begin,” I said with a laugh.
Wulf raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Yes, I am me. The question is: do you know who you are?”
“Amos Kidd! I’m Amos Kidd, the deadliest pirate in this quadrant.” He was practically foaming at the mouth.
Wulf scoffed, “A pirate? I think not.” He eyed them skeptically. “Perhaps you are enforcers pretending to be us.”
“We are not enforcers.” Amos thumped his chest. “We are the Kidds.”
“Impossible, for we are them. Where you cloned by the Alliance?”
“Cloned? No! We’re us. The most feared—”
“Pirates in the galaxy.” Wulf finished for him.
Ziyad snorted. “Not too bright, are they?”
“They make up for it with pure viciousness,” Colburn said.
Geir stepped in front of his flummoxed brother. “How did you find and fix our Marauder Foxfire so quickly?
“You are as delusional as your friend there.” Wulf jerked his thumb at the Kidd brothers’ battered shuttle. “We both know you arrived in that.”
“Enough,” Micah shouted. “Tell us the truth, or I’ll rip out your intestines and feed them to the rats.”
“The only ones feeding the rats today is you and those phony brothers of yours,” Wulf answered. “But first, tell me this. Why the masquerade? Is it for the bounty on our heads?”
In unison, the brothers shrieked, “We are the Kidds.”
Fritjof burst into the shuttle bay, carrying a body scanner. “Now we find out who the imposters are.”
“Can you mess with his scanner?”
“I can,” Ziyad replied, keying in a series of numbers into the command console.
Fritjof pointed the scanner at my warlords and frowned. “The readings are all over the place. It says they are Hus Ping or Gorum.”
“Try it again,” Amos growled.
The master assassin gave the device a good thump. “Now it shows they are Farin.” He turned the scanner off, then back on, and rechecked the readout. “It seems to be working now.” He ran the device over Amos and his brothers.
“Do something. Quick,” I urged.
“Trying.” Ziyad hurriedly inputted more numbers. “A radiation leak from the Kidds’ shuttle is creating interference. It’s blocking me from shutting down the scanner.”
“You, my disgusting friends, are the genuine Kidd brothers,” Fritjof announced.
Amos questioned, “What are they?”
“Coletti,” Fritjof answered.
Micah Kidd pulled an enormous knife. “Drop the energy field. When I’m done with them, their own females won’t recognize them.”
“We’re out of time.” I bolted for the transporter room, inputted the coordinates for the shuttle bay, and jumped on the platform. “Get Tol, Colburn.”
“I’m coming with you. You need backup,” Colburn protested.
“No. Go after Tol. My disguise should protect me long enough to get the password from Fritjof’s mind. Once I pass it on to Ziyad, she can free our warlords. Besides, the Kidd brothers won’t automatically shoot their own mother.” I hoped.
Ziyad alerted me. “They’re now arguing over who gets to kill our warlords.”
Colburn pushed the transporter controls, and a glittering blue light blossomed around me.
Chapter Fifteen
Twenty seconds later, I was standing behind the Kidd brothers and Fritjof in the shuttle bay.
No one but my warlords noticed my sudden appearance.
Whoa! Wulf was putting out some seriously angry vibes. I gave him a friendly wave.
He bared his green teeth. “Leave.”
“Not without you.” I put a finger to my mouth. “Ssssh. It’s about to get interesting.”
There was a dangerous edge to Fritjof’s voice as he poked Amos in the chest. “They are my prisoners. Not yours. So, back off.” With a flick of his hand, the security detail turned their weapons on the Kidd brothers. “You can have what’s left of them, after I’ve finished my interrogation.”
“We can help,” Amos protested. “We want to know why they’re here and who sent them as much as you do.”
Geir added, “I think Fritjof is more interested in what kind of holographic device they’re using. The technology is quite amazing. We could make some good credits off of it on the black market.”
“We?” The master assassin had a nasty look on his face. “There is no we.”
“You need our black market contacts,” Amos said; his fingers stroked the butt of his laser pistol.
“Do I?”
“Gylla, the master hacker, won’t deal with you. Not after you killed his lover,” Amos replied smugly. “Without his help, you’ll never figure out how the holographic program works.”
Fritjof pointed at my warlords. “They will gladly tell me what I want to know.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But negotiations are over.” Geir held up a small controller. “I’ve got a laser cannon pointed at your head. I push the button, and you and your warriors are dead.”
A laugh broke from Fritjof. “The blast will kill you too. Even if you somehow managed to survive, your shuttle is badly damaged, and there is an Alliance battle cruiser hiding behind Skardu just waiting for you to make a run for it.”
Micah shrugged. “We take the imposters’ ship.”
“I won’t allow that to happen,” Fritjof drawled ominously.
I had to stop them before they killed Fritjof. If I didn’t get that password, I would lose the love of my life. “My beautiful babies!” I cried and rushed forward.
The Kidd brothers exclaimed in unison. “Mother?”
Fritjof glanced down at his scanner. “No. Another imposter, but human this time and with some added hardware.”
Amos seemed confused. “She looks exactly like our mother and sounds like her too. Are you sure the scanner isn’t malfunctioning again?”
“Very.” Fritjof aimed his laser pistol at me. “How did you get on my space station, female?”
Wulf threatened, “You had better be wearing your battle suit, or I am putting you over my knee.”
“Ooh, kinky.”
“Yakira.” Wulf used his scary sociopath’s voice.
“I am, and let’s just say, I’m my own fortress,” I replied a bit nervously.
“I’m afraid to ask.”
“It’s a little something Ziyad has been working on.”
“Answer me!” Fritjof shouted. “Are you deaf or just stupid, female?”
“Sorry, I was listening to the little voice in my head.”
“Get your hands up and answer my question.”
“Don’t yell at our mothe
r,” Micah warned.
“She’s not your mother!” Fritjof bawled. “Put your hands up and answer my question.”
The Kidd brothers raised their hands.
I bit back a giggle. They were the scourge of the galaxy?
“Not you.” Fritjof was practically foaming at the mouth as he pointed at me. “Her.”
I obediently raised my hands. “What was the question again?”
Fritjof hollered, “How did you get here?”
“No need to yell. I’m here for the card tournament. I play a mean game of Go Fish.” I did my best to get a peek inside his mind, but his mental pathways were screwy.
“Go Fish? There’s no such game.”
I blustered, “Are you calling me a fibber? ’Cause Go Fish is played on Earth.”
Fritjof pulled at his hair. “In my tournament only Tarocchi is played. For the last time, how did you get on my station?”
“I came with your invited guests, the Scarlets.”
“Lie to me again, and you die.” The master assassin’s rage made the weeping sores on his face even more gruesome.
“Would you believe me if I said I am Zelrine?”
“No!” Fritjof’s trigger finger twitched.
Yikes! He was getting ready to kill me.
“Don’t shoot our mother,” Amos howled and waved his laser pistol at Fritjof.
“She. Is. Not. Your. Mother,” Fritjof enunciated heatedly.
Micah declared, “Is too.”
“Look at the scanner,” Fritjof screeched and held it out.
Geir surveyed the screen. “He’s right. Mother doesn’t have bionic limbs.” He bared his razor-sharp metal teeth in a snarl. “Who are you? What did you do with our Mother?”
I dropped my act. “Zelrine is taking a nap. If you’re smart guys, you’ll lower your weapons.” I looked Fritjof dead in the eye. “Because if you shoot me, today will be the last day of your life. Do you want to live?” C’mon. C’mon. Don’t be stupid. I needed more time to get inside his head.
“You’re bluffing.”
“No. I’m not.” Dread knotted my stomach as I probed his mind again. Weird. His shields were crumpling. Some kind of disease had seriously messed up the master assassin’s brain. His thoughts were all over the place. Even worse, his impulse control was gone.
“Liar. Liar. Liar.” Fritjof fired.
A brilliant blue shield automatically formed around me. Crack! The laser beam rebounded. Zap! The master assassin was reduced to a big pile of ash.
Amos scratched his buggy beard with his laser pistol. “If we shoot the bitch, do we end up like that?”
“Dunno.” Geir shrugged and stared at the ash.
Brain-dead didn’t even begin to describe them. “Goddess, why don’t males ever listen?”
“It’s a genetic defect,” Ziyad replied. “How in the nine hells do we free our warlords now?”
“Good question.” I took a step back, then another and another. None of the males even noticed. Nope. Their attention was firmly focused on the smoldering ashes. Like if they watched them long enough, somehow Fritjof would magically reappear.
“That is the little something Ziyad’s been working on?” Wulf’s voice was a low, menacing rumble.
“Yep. Pretty nifty, isn’t it?” I kept backing away from the Kidd brothers.
“You lied to the Overlord.”
“Who? Me? He asked if she was working on any new weapons, and she isn’t.”
“That’s not a weapon?”
“Nope. It’s strictly defensive. They have to shoot first.”
“Anything that vaporizes your opponent is a weapon,” Wulf retorted.
Okay, he had a point, but to me it was a new form of armor. Only a warlord would consider it a type of armament.
Geir finally kicked at the ashes. “I’ve never seen a weapon do that.”
“Zap! He’s gone,” Micah added.
Fritjof’s warriors all nodded in agreement and started stuffing handfuls of ash in their pockets.
They were taking souvenirs?
Amos turned and eyed me thoughtfully. “You’re wearing some kind of newfangled body shield. Show it to me.”
I countered with, “You want to buy it? I’ll give you a good price. Say, ten million credits.”
“Buy?” Amos slapped his thighs and guffawed loudly. “Why buy when we can just take it?”
It was time to let out my inner pirate. “Touch me, and you’ll die a very horrible death.” I linked with Bui. “You ready?”
“Me ready.”
Amos laughed so hard tears ran down his cheeks. “You? Kill us?”
“Right in the kisser, Bui.”
Bui spit a web ball. It struck Amos’s lower face, covering his mouth and nose.
Muttering furiously, Amos clutched the sticky webbing and yanked frantically.
A giggle escaped me. Amos’s hands were now bonded to his face. His head bobbed wildly with every tug.
“Don’t touch it!” Geir cried about sixty seconds too late. He grabbed his brother’s arms and pulled and pulled and pulled.
The entire time Amos made squawking noises that reminded me of a feral parrot.
I think the bearded pirate was telling his brother to stop, but I could be wrong.
Wulf uttered an epithet that was anatomically impossible. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“I need them to shoot me.”
“Oh, they will shoot you, all right,” Wulf all but thundered. “Are there any guarantees your shield will continue to hold? One tiny glitch, and you will perish.”
“Have a little faith. I know what I’m doing.”
“The battlefield can change in an instant. You must be able to adapt.”
“Can we discuss this after I’ve taken care of the Kidd brothers?”
Wulf snapped, “Defeating them will not be an easy task.”
“I know you have been in hundreds of thousands of battles, but you’re kinda tied up right now, and I’m the one that has to free you. So shut the hell up and let me do my job!”
“Did you just tell me to shut up?” Wulf was definitely in a snit.
“I did. You’re messing with my concentration.” My patience was kaput. Here I was trying to save their ungrateful butts, and it was bitch, bitch, bitch. “Now shush.”
“Shush?”
“Ssssh.”
The webbing still covering his face, Amos broke away from his brother and stumbled toward me, grunting what sounded like, “I’m going to kill you.”
I backed away from him. Goddess, were all the males in the galaxy suffering from testosterone poisoning? If they weren’t trying to subjugate me or use me, they wanted to end me. Was it because I stood up to them? Maybe. Or was it my bubbly personality? Or could it be my ability to aggravate the heck out of them? Probably the latter.
“Hold on, Amos. I’ll cut you lose.” Micah drew a razor-sharp dagger and sawed at the webbing.
Imagine my surprise when Micah managed to free his brother’s left hand before the blade got entangled in the gummy strands.
Amos made a grotesque choking sound and toppled over.
Gee, what a shame. The right side of his face was now glued to the floor. The big, bad pirate wasn’t going anywhere.
Micah bellowed, “You did this! You did this!”
“Me? I didn’t do anything.” Guess they had never heard of a Tabor.
Geir backhanded me, knocking me to the floor. “Don’t lie to us. Help him or die.”
Wulf’s furious roar echoed around the shuttle bay.
I tasted blood in my mouth and spit it out. “Hitting me wasn’t a smart move.” I rubbed my sore jaw. The bastard had loosened a few teeth.
Bui bounced on my head. “Me bite? Me bite?”
Geir reached for me.
“You bite.” I drove my bionic foot into Geir’s knee, snapping it.
With a cry of agony, the pirate collapsed and held his rapidly ballooning knee. “I’m going to ki
ll you. I’m going to kill you.”
“Doubtful. Since you have about thirty seconds to live.”
Fury burning in his eyes, Geir pulled a small sword and dragged himself forward.
My little Tabor jumped on his sword hand and bit him.
The blade fell from Geir’s grip as his muscles began to jerk uncontrollably. A white foam oozed from his mouth, and his movements stilled abruptly.
“Tabor venom is the deadliest in the galaxy, but you already know that.” I got to my feet. “Quick. Quick. Quick. Back to me, Bui.”
Bui scampered up my body and took her place on my head. “Me did good. Me protect Yakeee.”
“You certainly did. I’m very proud of you.”
“No!” Micah shouted as he dropped down beside Geir and shook him violently. “You can’t be dead. You can’t be. The mundunugu said as long as we wore the medallions, we were indestructible.”
“I’d ask for my money back.”
His face a yucky shade of blue, Amos drew his weapon and started shooting.
Lack of oxygen and being stuck to the metal floor did nothing for his aim. Laser bolts zinged this way and that, forcing Micah and Fritjof’s warriors to hit the deck.
Me? I just waited. Sure enough. Crack! An energy bolt hit the sparkling blue shield that instantaneously appeared. Snap! The laser beam rebounded.
Zap! Amos’s molecules vaporized, leaving behind a stinky pile of ash.
Micah shot me a murderous glare. “You killed them.”
“I defended myself against bloodthirsty pirates. Did I use lethal force? You bet I did. Plus, I’m going to get rich collecting the bounties the enforcers have posted on all you Kidd brothers.”
Micah scrambled to his feet and holstered his laser pistol. “The only thing you’re collecting is a one-way trip to the nine hells.” He cracked his knuckles. “I’m going to tear your mind apart.”
I cocked a disbelieving brow. “You can try.” I hit Micah with a mental lightning bolt.
A look of shock crossed the pirate’s face before he hit back.
I blocked the blow and hammered Micah with telekinetic punches.
He retaliated by slugging me in the face with his fist.
I staggered backward and fought to stay on my feet. Goddess, that hurt. The room spun around me, and those funny black spots were messing with my vision again. The bastard couldn’t take me down psychically, so he resorted to a physical attack?