“What the hell does that mean?” the Colonel Nines demanded.
“He’s working on providing proof that the girl isn’t what she claims to be. Now, I believe you had a proposal for us?”
“I’d rather deal with Togs.”
“And I’d rather kill the girl then shoot as many of your men as possible while you storm the place. But we can’t all get what we want.”
“Do you have the authority to negotiate with me?”
“Do you?”
“You’re stalling,” the Colonel replied. “And I’m not seeing any record of you in the galactic database.”
“I suspect you wouldn’t. You see, I…”
“This isn’t working, madam,” Silky said. “You’re going to bring the entire ruse down.”
“I want to speak with Togs now,” the Colonel growled.
“You’d better come up with something quick, madam.”
Mitsuki had taken this assignment to help a girl escape and to prove she was the best. Her time to shine had arrived. And she was going to have to make the big play, the one she’d been saving for over a decade, just in case. She’d honestly thought that she’d never need to use it.
“Colonel, I am going to level with you. I am the one in charge here, not Togs.”
“You are?”
“Yes, Colonel. I’m not an anti-Benevolence militant, and as you can tell I’ve burned through all my fake identities. My real name is Silustria Ting. I’m a special operations agent for the Empire of a Thousand Worlds.”
There was silence on the other end, so she continued.
“I assure you, Colonel Nines, that you’re not dealing with a rank amateur. You are, in fact, dealing with a situation beyond your pay grade. You are going to need to consult your superiors.”
“Pop me out of my socket!” Silky exclaimed. “Silustria Ting is a Thousand Worlder agent.”
“Obviously.”
“And you clearly didn’t create this persona.”
“No. I didn’t.”
“Is any of the stuff I’m reading about this woman true?”
“Probably all of it.”
“Silustria Ting…” the Colonel said, his voice trembling. “We have…uh…we have a proposal for exchanging…”
“I reject your offer, Colonel.”
“Wh–what?”
“I reject it.”
“But you haven’t heard…”
“Here’s what I propose, Colonel. You are going to provide safe passage for me and the special girl. And you can have what’s left of Togs and his compatriots.”
“Togs…what’s happened to him?”
“I’m done with him, and he’s no longer in the picture. He wasn’t getting me anywhere.”
“I’m reading that he’s still alive.”
“Yes, and unless you’ve got your sensors stuck up your ass, you should be able to tell that I hit him with a rather heavy neural shot to disable him.”
After a moment he said, “I can see that he’s in distress, yes.”
“I’m done using him. He’s all yours. And I believe he’s wanted for several dozen crimes.”
“I can’t let you out of here in exchange for a few criminals, even one with Togs’ record.”
“I think you can. And I think you will after you have a discussion about me with your superiors.”
“How do I know you are who you claim to be?”
“Tell your commander that I was at Altair V, and that I know who did what and to whom they did it. I will release the information if I’m not allowed out of here.”
“Anything else? That seems rather vague.”
“I promise that’s all you’ll need to tell them. I’ll wait for you to get back to me.”
“Madam, what the hell?”
“It’s a long story. Let’s just say that I had a run in with a special operations agent while escaping from the Empire. Now, I need you and all the other chippies to get to processing.”
“Yes, madam.”
“And I want my chippy upgraded, too.”
“If you like, madam.”
“Kyralla could you go get the emitter?” Mitsuki asked.
With a puzzled look on her face, she nodded. “If Silky will tell me where it is.”
A moment later, she hurried off.
“Bishop, Silky, we need to calibrate it so that it shows all of you still inside the house and not in the skimmer car. Can we do that?”
“Maybe,” Silky replied.
“I can block their scans of the skimmer,” Bishop said. “It’s one of the features I’m enabling.”
“I just bought us half an hour while he works that information up the chain of command. Can you finish by then?”
“Easily!”
“Good.”
Mitsuki sat down beside Siv. His convulsions had stopped a minute ago. Oona still had a hand on his head.
“Is he doing any better?” Mitsuki asked.
“I’m trying to soothe him using my power.”
“Is that working?”
Oona chuckled sadly. “Doubtful. All I can seem to do is make his amulet glow.”
Mitsuki stared at the red glow a moment. If that was all the girl could manage, she was hardly special enough to be worth all this attention. That was nothing more than a parlor trick.
“I’m going to get you out of here, or die trying.”
“I know,” Oona said. “And I understand why.”
“You do?”
The girl’s black eyes locked onto her, and she nodded. “I’m scared of being trapped, too.”
Mitsuki shivered. It unnerved her how the girl seemed to just know things about her. But some people were naturally empathic and good at reading people. That along with the eyes and the glowing medallion trick. She could see how maybe people would believe the girl was some sort of deity.
Kyralla returned with the emitter, and Bishop told her to put it in the glove box in the car for now.
Siv stirred, groaning. “What—what’s going on? Silky won’t…let me talk to…the Colonel. Says he’s busy.”
Mitsuki explained the situation to him.
“I’ve heard of Silustria Ting. She’s a legend. And isn’t she supposed to be dead?”
“Missing, presumed dead.”
“You know the truth, don’t you?”
“She killed her,” Oona stated. “During her escape from the Empire.”
Mitsuki stared at the girl. She opened her mouth, then closed it. How had she known? Mitsuki had never told anyone. She didn’t know what to say.
Then she laughed. The girl was just guessing. Wasn’t she?
“But she didn’t want to,” Oona continued. “She didn’t have a choice, the other agents were closing in on them. Silustria had told her all her secrets but then…” Oona shook her head and rocked back on her heels. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to say all that. It just…came to me. That happens sometimes. Usually not this much, but some people are more…psychically open.”
Mitsuki frowned, stunned. That wasn't a guess. There was absolutely no way the girl could’ve known that. Mind reading…it wasn't possible. Yet, how else could she talk about it like she’d been there as well? There were third generation, advanced empaths. Silky claimed to have served with one. So maybe this girl was a fourth generation empath.
“Silustria Ting,” Colonel Nines said, sounding rather timid now. “Your request has been forwarded to the Terran Federation High Council. Make no moves.”
It took Mitsuki a moment to regain her composure and respond. “Understood, Colonel.”
“That’s good, right?” Kyralla asked her. She didn’t seem phased by her sister’s mind reading trick. Maybe Oona did that kind of thing all the time. Someone should tell them that people with secrets don’t like them shared.
Mitsuki shrugged. “One of two things is going to happen. Either they let me pass, for fear that I will have some way of automatically releasing that information, even if I die. Or they’re going to decide
to risk that result and fire everything they’ve got us, criminals, innocents, and messiahs be damned.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Siv Gendin
The world spun around him as Siv sat up.
Oona took his hand and squeezed it lightly. “Can I get you anything?”
He shook his head, instantly regretting the movement, and tried to smile. “I’m all right.”
Kyralla squatted beside him and offered him a steaming cup of something that smelled utterly foul.
“Ugh, is that coffee?” he asked. “I hate the stuff.”
“It’s a stimulant,” she replied. “I thought it might help.”
Wincing, he downed the coffee as fast as he could, hoping he wouldn’t throw it up. “Mitsuki, that was amazing.”
“I never thought I’d have to make that play.” She sighed deeply, her wingtips drooping to brush the floor. “It’s going to get me hunted down and killed. Assuming, we can escape this mess alive.”
“That’s a problem for another day,” Siv said.
“How could it get you into more trouble?” Oona asked. “If anyone spots you they’ll know you aren’t Silustria. Why would they hunt you down?”
“They’ll think I know where she is or what happened to her, and certain powerful people will know that I know things they desperately want kept secret.”
“So we can’t let anyone spot you. As long as they think they are dealing with the actual Silustria Ting. No one but us will ever know that it’s really you.” Kyralla suggested. “Right?”
Mitsuki shrugged. “That’s the plan.”
Bishop crawled out from under the skimmer with a satisfied look on his face.
“All finished?” Siv asked.
“Oh, ‘Nevolence no.”
Mitsuki groaned.
“But,” Bishop added quickly, “all the technical work is finished. Every system should function now.”
“You haven’t tested any of them, have you?” Siv asked.
“Well…no. But like I said, I’ve worked on these before and…” He bobbed his head. “I’m pretty sure it’s all good to go.”
“Shouldn’t you still be working then?” Mitsuki asked.
“I could use some help to make that go faster. Everything needs to be put back into place. Wires bound and crammed back in, panels reattached, power packs reconnected…those sorts of things.”
“Tell us what to do then,” Siv said.
“You stay right where you are,” Mitsuki told him. “Karson, lead on.”
“But I can—”
“No arguing,” Mitsuki said. “I’m in charge now.”
Siv scowled, and Oona smiled at him. “You’re not used to following orders.”
“I’m used to it. But I hate it.”
“This is your fault,” Mitsuki said. “You insisted on delaying your doses to build up your resistance, and that failed spectacularly.”
“Mitsuki,” Bishop said meekly, “I need you to start mounting these extra power packs using mag-lock discs.”
Everyone set to work, except Siv and Oona. Bishop claimed he was only excluding the girl because there were no other tasks to assign, but Siv suspected Bishop thought manual labor was beneath a messiah.
“Your withdrawal’s going worse than you expected, isn’t it?” Oona asked.
“When I tried to break myself of it before, I was fifteen. I thought my resistance would increase with age if I worked at it. Obviously, I was wrong.”
“Sir, the calibration is now seventy-five percent complete. Adding in the other chippies’ processing power has helped tremendously. If we have time to run test simulations, that would be excellent. But I do think it will work.”
“Carry on, Silkster.”
Oona helped Siv lean back against a wall. He dozed for a short while then woke to find his car reassembled. There was little evidence to show that Bishop had done anything to it, other than a few faint scorch-marks and a handful of light scratches and dents on the panels where he had clumsily pried them free and tossed them aside.
Siv stood. He was feeling a lot better now. Almost his normal self. “The systems?”
“Testing now,” Bishop said as he slid into the driver’s seat. “Initiating the shimmer veil.”
The wood-paneled skimmer sedan flickered and turned sort of milkily transparent, like a mirage special effect in a movie had gone bad. But that was okay, because it only failed up close. At a distance the car would be difficult to spot by sight. Naturally, that wouldn’t help them against radar, heat, and motion scans. But it would make a huge difference once Silky jammed all their detection and targeting systems.
Bishop powered it down with a smile on his face. “Perfect.”
“Sir, incoming call from Colonel Nines.”
“Patch it through to Mitsuki.”
“Madam Silustria, I have received word from my superiors. You will not be allowed to depart at this time. You are to remain here. A federal negotiation team is on the way. They will arrive in four days time. Please, do not attempt an escape or any other drastic actions.”
“Or?”
“I have been ordered to level the house at range and eliminate everyone inside,” he said flatly, “regardless of who they may or may not be. Is this clear?”
Mitsuki shivered, but her voice remained level. “It is clear that you have not taken me seriously, Colonel. You should consider the consequences.”
She drew a line across her throat. Silky killed the connection. Mitsuki collapsed against the car.
“That didn’t go well.”
“I’ll say,” Kyralla muttered.
“You bought four days,” Siv said. “That gives you more time to find a way out of this.” At this point he doubted he would see the outcome, good or bad, but he trusted Mitsuki to find a way for them. He had to.
“Federal negotiators means they’ve called in a kill team,” Mitsuki said. “Specialists. The sort of android soldiers you’d send to take on Tekk Reapers. And I highly doubt it will take them four days to get here.”
“That’s just great,” Kyralla said.
“How did they locate us?” Bishop asked. “I thought we got away cleanly.”
“Apparently not,” Mitsuki said. “Perhaps they tracked us via satellite. A good observer or AI routine could’ve tracked us manually, with a bit of detective work.”
“Or maybe Siv’s protocols, security measures, and jamming signals aren’t as effective as he thinks,” Kyralla said.
Siv sighed. He wished she would learn to trust everyone and stop lashing out. She was stressed, worried, and way outside her element. He understood the discomfort that caused, but she didn’t have to act so aggressive and defensive about everything.
“Actually,” Oona whispered softly, “I think it might be my fault.”
“Your fault?” Bishop asked with surprise.
“Oona, what did you do?” Kyralla asked softly.
“I had this vision of Dad in trouble and I got scared so…so I tried to contact him directly using a secure government channel.”
Mitsuki rounded on her. “You used a government channel to contact your dad?! What the hell were you thinking?! You might as well have posted our location on social media. You were supposed to stay silent and use the house connections, and only if necessary.”
She gazed at her feet. “The house system was down.”
“Then you should’ve waited!” Mitsuki shouted and stepped toward Oona. “I can’t save you if you’re just going to throw yourself into more danger.”
Kyralla stepped between Mitsuki and Oona. “Hey, lay off!”
“Or what?” Mitsuki said. “You’ll kick my ass? Go ahead and try. Even if you can, it won’t get you anywhere.”
“You act like such a big shot. We don’t need you.” Kyralla’s angry glare included Siv and Bishop too. Siv thought she was about to cry. “We can manage on our own.”
“Kyra, we do need her,” Oona said. “We have no way of escaping.”
> “We would’ve been fine if we’d been left alone,” Kyralla said.
“Sir, I’m detecting an atmospheric anomaly via level five scan.”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“The readings don’t make sense. Unless…”
Mitsuki opened her mouth to yell at Kyralla.
“Sir, get in the skimmer now!”
Siv leapt to his feet, interrupting the argument. “Everyone in the car!”
He made sure all the others were in before he dove into the back. Kyralla took the driver’s seat, Mitsuki the passenger, and Oona the middle of the back with Bishop to one side and Siv the other.
“What’s going on?” Oona asked.
“A cloaked Thousand Worlder drop-ship just entered the atmosphere,” Silky told everyone.
Mitsuki looked at Oona. “I’m afraid I just doubled their determination. With the chance to capture me and the girl they’re willing to risk an open war.”
“Risk a war?” Silky said. “They’re basically declaring it.”
“Does the Ekaran military know?” Siv asked.
“It doesn’t appear so, sir. Not yet.”
“Can you trigger the Hornets from here?”
“Not from this far out, sir. Do you want me to warn the Colonel?”
“Yes, tell him there’s an incoming attack. Maybe they’ve figured out how to use the Hornets by now, if they didn’t already know.”
“Sir, five burst drops just launched from the Thousand Worlder ship, along with five Solo-Nine starfighters. They’re heading this way.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Siv Gendin
Kyralla grabbed the steering wheel and activated the antigrav. The skimmer car lifted off the ground with a deep purr. She revved the propulsion engine, and it growled. Bishop’s improvements at least sounded impressive.
“Tell me when,” Kyralla said.
“On my signal,” Siv replied.
“I warned Colonel Nines over a secure channel, sir. He’s confused but taking evasive actions.”
“Can we recalibrate the pulse burst to target the Thousand Worlders?” Mitsuki asked.
Siv switched Silky onto the skimmer’s comm to make coordinating with everyone easier.
Rogue Starship: The Benevolency Universe (Outworld Ranger Book 1) Page 28