by Terry Mixon
“Wait for it,” she said without taking her eyes off the prize. “Let’s see if one of his guards moves far enough away.”
“That wasn’t the plan.”
She smiled. “And here I thought danger was your middle name. Be ready to back my play.”
“Goddamned spies,” he muttered. “Next you’ll want a martini.”
“Shaken. Not stirred.”
When the ex-spy pocketed his com, he gestured for his men to go after the others. They trotted off at speed while he followed a bit more sedately.
“Here we go,” she said.
Rachel opened the door as silently as possible. She came out low and fast, curving around to come up on the man’s rear.
Instead of her pistol, she had a shocker out. It would deliver an incapacitating jolt of electricity to the target, either knocking him out or rendering his resistance pathetic.
The man must’ve sensed her at the last moment. He turned abruptly and fired a shot where her chest would’ve been if she were standing. It was loud and missed her by inches.
She jammed the shocker into his crotch and let him have it. He screamed like a little girl and collapsed.
That got the attention of the man’s closest minions, but Hale was ready. He lit them up before they managed to turn around. Both went down hard.
Rachel swapped the shocker for her pistol and snagged the man’s com. She’d yank the battery as soon as she could.
Hale snagged the man and tossed him over his shoulder while she backed up with her weapon out. The larger force had turned around as soon as the shooting started and was on its way back. Time to make a speedy exit.
She fired at the enemy to force them to seek cover while they slipped into their hidey-hole. She locked the door and they retreated to the back of the shop. An exit there led into a service corridor.
Hale raced to the right and she followed closely, taking a moment to disable the captured com. A service elevator got them to a different level and away from immediate discovery.
Of course, the few people they saw gave them strange looks because of the unconscious man.
“He can’t hold his liquor,” Hale said with a laugh.
That wouldn’t keep security from hearing about it once the news of the attack in the park came out. She only hoped that one of the security men had escaped and told their colleagues that she and Hale had been defending themselves.
The corridors started getting seedier, and the people they ran past stopped paying them any attention. That was much more to her liking.
Hale took some stairs of questionable stability up to the lightest gravity she’d felt on the station. He opened an old hatch with writing so faded she couldn’t even make out the language.
The lights came on when he pressed the switch, but they took their time. Only half of the ceiling panels worked. A few flickered distractingly.
They were inside the stripped remains of a control room. One large window looked out into a darkened area that felt huge. The glass was long gone. Only a few shards covered in grime remained.
The interior of the room had the skeletons of a few consoles and chairs that some kind soul had cut open to see what kind of stuffing they had.
She picked the one that seemed sturdiest. “Put him there.”
As soon as Hale dumped the unconscious man, she started stripping their prisoner.
“Um…what are you doing?” Hale asked.
She grinned at him. “You wouldn’t be complaining if this was a hot lady. This kind of guy probably has all kinds of interesting things stashed on his person. I intend to find them all before he can use them to escape.”
“Do you have hidden things?”
“You’ll never know.”
Rachel dumped the man’s clothes on the floor and gave him a close search before using ties to bind his wrists behind the back of the chair and his ankles behind the shaft under the seat.
He didn’t have anything on his body or in his hair, but a good look at his clothes got a wallet, two other guns, a concealed knife, and a lock pick sewn into a seam.
She laid them out on one of the stripped consoles. “He’ll be coming around soon. What is this place, and how likely are we to be disturbed?”
“It’s an old cargo facility. The station grew around it and it’s now completely enclosed. It hasn’t been used in decades. Druggies occasionally come here, but I’ll wedge the door shut. Security won’t bother us. Not for a long while, anyway. What’s the plan with our prisoner?”
The man was starting to twitch. He’d wake up soon enough. “I’m going to get answers to our questions. After what this guy and his people did, are you going to quibble about my methods?”
Hale shook his head. “No. What are you going to do with him when you have our answers?”
She smiled coldly. “That depends on how cooperative he is. Can you find out if Quinn and the patrolmen made it?”
“I’ll make a call.”
The prisoner moaned. “I’ll wait with our friend while you do. Use the throwaway and disconnect the power when you’re done. Keep it short.”
Rachel squatted in front of the man and smiled when his eyes fluttered open. “Good morning, sunshine! I hear you were looking for me. The good news is you found me. The bad news is that I’m not tied up naked for you to terrorize. Awkward, huh?
“I’ll give you a minute to finish waking up, but you need to be thinking about how you’re going to make me happy, because that’s the only way you’re surviving this question-and-answer session. Got it?”
He spat at her and missed. “Fuck you.”
She grinned. “This is going to be fun. Let’s see how much of your anti-interrogation training you remember. There’ll be a quiz when we’re done.”
Chapter Twenty
Adam tried to call from the abandoned cargo control room, but the com reception was crappy. He pulled Price away from her fun long enough to tell her he was leaving for a bit. She didn’t seem happy, but she rarely did.
He unblocked the door and made his way back to the more populated areas. This was the kind of place where you wanted your back against a wall at all times. He found an alcove with a view before he tried his com again.
“Hello?”
“Cindy, this is Adam. I need your help.”
“Holy crap! You’re all over the news! Security is looking for you and your friend. Something about shooting a detective.”
That wasn’t promising. The patrolmen should’ve been able to clarify things, if they’d survived. Or if their superiors had believed them.
“Don’t believe everything you see on the news. I need you to call someone for me and ask a few questions.”
“I can get in big trouble just for talking to you.”
“Look at it this way. I doubt they’ll be holding onto Jason for anything now.”
That provoked a short silence and a laugh. “I suppose not. Who do you want me to call, and what’s the question?”
“I need you to com Jason’s cousin, Paul Wong. I’ll give you the number. I want to make sure the detective survived.”
“I don’t need to call anyone about that. She’s in the hospital in stable condition.”
He relaxed a little. Medical care was exceedingly good nowadays. If they got ahold of you while you were still breathing, they’d probably be able to save your life. Quinn had a good chance.
“What about the patrolmen at the park?”
“I don’t know. There was a big shootout, as I’m sure you already know. Someone killed several people. I hope it wasn’t you. Oh, there was some kind of secondary shooting event a little later and an explosion. Did you start a war?”
“That’s not a bad description, just not in the way you think. Thanks, Cindy.”
“Wait. I found out something else about your brother. The guy from port security called me back with something interesting.
“It seems your brother hacked their system to get his badge authorized, which freaked them out
, but he also arranged for shipping some cargo out of storage without the usual checks. That really has them running around in a panic.”
“Interesting. Do you know where it went?”
“No, but I’m sure security is all over it. It could have anything in it.”
“Thanks, Cindy. I owe you another one.”
Adam disconnected the call and looked up the non-emergency number for security. He’d have to move before he made this call. No matter how short he kept it, they’d get some kind of lead, and he didn’t want them searching this area too closely.
He bought some clothes of questionable origin and dumped the ones he’d been wearing. He also lost the jacket. It was so small that people were giving him odd stares.
Once he looked relatively normal, he took the back way a quarter of the way around the station. After he was in a safe spot, he called security.
“Security desk. Officer Riley. How may I direct your call?”
“This is Adam Hale. I need to speak to the detective investigating the shootings. If you try to pawn me off while you trace the call, I’ll disconnect.”
The man hesitated for a few seconds. “I’m putting you through. Stay on the line.”
Moments later, another man spoke. “Detective Sergeant Pride. Is this Adam Hale?”
“Yes. I wanted you to know we had nothing to do with that attack. And we didn’t shoot Detective Quinn.”
“We know that much. Someone took a video of the attack and you carrying Quinn to safety. The patrolmen told us the attackers were after you. Tell me where you are so we can get you into protective custody.”
That was a relief. He was in enough trouble for the things he was going to do. “They blocked your secure coms and are connected with Janus. You’d better triple the guard on Quinn. I don’t know who is in their pocket.
“That’s why we can’t come in. These guys will kill anyone to get at us. Jason Chang isn’t part of this.”
Adam disconnected the call. The battery went into a bin and the com in another. He stashed the chips in his pocket.
He made it back to their hiding place without any problems. Things looked about like they had when he’d left. Honestly, that surprised him. He’d expected a lot more blood. There were barely any bruises.
“Did he start talking?”
She shook her head. “No. Not yet, but I’m a patient woman. How’s Quinn?”
“Alive. Ditto the patrolmen. For once, security knows we didn’t start this ruckus. Some citizen recorded most of the fight on his com and turned it over.” He looked at their prisoner. “Smile. You’re probably all over the network.”
“That doesn’t make one bit of difference,” the man said. “The people I work for will squash the investigation, and you’re still going to die. Just like your brother.”
Adam closed the distance between them in two quick steps and smashed his fist into the asshole’s face. His nose broke with a satisfying crunch. That made the bastard yelp.
“I suggest you don’t push me,” Adam said in a low, grim voice. “I was there when you butchered all those people on Mars. Don’t. Push. Me.”
The man’s smug expression was gone, replaced by more than a hint of fear. He wisely kept his mouth shut, so Adam released him and backed up.
“I also got some interesting information from my contact,” Adam said to Price. “Step into my office.”
The two of them backed far enough away that the prisoner couldn’t hear them. She shook her head. “I thought I was the violent one.”
“You’re the scary one. I’m the violent one. Cindy told me her contact in port security called back. Zane hacked their system, as you suspected. He also arranged to ship a crate out of storage without a customs check. I’m betting it had something interesting in it. Maybe even him, since he didn’t show up leaving the place.”
Price pursed her lips. “Well, that certainly does open some interesting possibilities.”
“Unfortunately, it didn’t stop them from picking him up,” Adam said softly. “And killing him.”
“We don’t know that for sure. That idiot wanted to yank your chain. It’s still possible Zane is alive and in their custody.”
“But how likely?”
She shrugged. “Not very, but I’m not giving up hope. We need to get this guy talking. I have some drugs that might help, but I have them stashed at my hideout. Can you keep an eye on this asshole without tossing him out the window?”
“It’s been years since I defenestrated someone.”
That got a laugh out of her. “You are full of surprises, Hale. I didn’t think you knew words that big. It might take me a while to sneak around, so don’t get worried if I’m not back soon.”
He looked over at the prisoner. “Be careful. These people are desperate now.”
“I’ll bring back something to eat. You have any preferences?”
“Surprise me.”
She left without any further ado.
He sat on the edge of one of the ruined consoles and watched the prisoner. This was going to be a long few hours.
* * * * *
Rachel followed Hale’s example and picked up some clothes to change her appearance. She’d need to change her hair color and style before too long.
She bought dark glasses to break up the lines of her face in case they’d started looking for her via automated facial recognition. She picked up some for Hale, too.
Even sticking to the smaller corridors, she still had to dodge two security patrols. They were heavily armed and armored. The attack in the park had really shaken the station.
She took her time and made sure no one saw her go into the maintenance passages. It was all for nothing, though. Someone had taken everything. Even the hidden kit.
The thieves had destroyed anything they hadn’t taken. And someone had defecated in the middle of the room.
Classy.
The kit wouldn’t have meant anything to common scavengers, but the fact she’d hidden it made it valuable. She needed a new plan.
There was Zane’s kit, but it was in Hale’s shop. Security would have his place under observation. Janus probably had someone keeping an eye on it, too.
That was going to make getting in a lot more challenging.
Her earlier search had told her the place had several entrances, but none of them would be safe now. At least none of the regular ones.
The industrial area was multi-level. That meant it had places with up to three stories on the same deck. The shop only had one story. That left a gap, if she could get there unseen.
Several nearby businesses had the potential to allow her access. She just had to scope them out without someone spotting her.
Rachel managed to get on the correct level without arousing any undue suspicion. Once there, she eyed the building from up the street. No one stood out as watching it, but they might be using cameras. She would.
The pedestrian street was too wide to jump across, no matter what the movies led the public to believe.
The building directly against Hale’s place connected to the roof of the entire level, so there was no gap to exploit. The one on the other side of the service alley was two stories. The gap between them was wider than she liked. Possible, but only if she could get up to full speed. And there’d be a hard landing.
It also made getting back out problematical.
Well, she’d have to figure that out when the time came. She needed Zane’s kit, or the bastard would never talk.
The next challenge was getting up to the two-story building’s roof without someone seeing her. The place was some kind of manufactory, and it was open. The employees would raise an alarm if they caught her inside. Especially since she’d need to sneak in the back way to avoid any awkward cameras out front.
Oh well. If it was easy, anyone could do it.
The rear of the building offered her a possible way out of her predicament. The second story had an emergency escape ladder with roof access. The bottom rung
was ten feet in the air, but some kind soul had parked a delivery van nearby.
Rachel looked around and then climbed onto the roof of the vehicle. She had to make a running start from the front, but caught the ladder on the second try.
After a few moments swinging wildly by one hand, she managed to get herself oriented and climbed up to the second floor.
Just in time for the driver of the delivery van and another man to come out of the building.
She flattened herself as closely against the window as she could, only to find herself staring at the back of someone’s head. The woman was working on her comp, so Rachel hoped she wouldn’t turn around. If she did, things would get awkward fast.
The two men seemingly talked forever before the driver left and the employee went inside.
Rachel climbed to the roof. It didn’t have to protect against the weather, so it was made of the same metal as the building. The builder had added a thin coating for grip, but it was still slicker than she liked.
She walked to the side of the building and eyed the distance. It looked even wider than she’d expected. Her heart started racing.
Well, no use putting things off.
Rachel backed up as far as she could, took a series of deep breaths, and raced across the roof as if her life depended on it. It might.
She managed to plant her foot against the lip and flew across the gap. As soon as she left the building, she knew she wasn’t going to make it, but still managed to lock her fingers onto Hale’s roof.
Her body slammed into the wall, knocking the air out of her lungs and almost causing her to fall. It was like doing a belly flop into an empty pool. Nothing felt broken, but she’d be feeling this for a while.
She gritted her teeth and pulled herself up, rolling onto the roof and staring at the ceiling. Her entire body ached. She’d pulled muscles she’d never suspected she had.
Once she could move again, she rose and staggered to the roof hatch. It was unlocked, surprisingly. She’d have expected Hale to be a little more security conscious.
She opened it gingerly, ready to stop if it squealed. It didn’t. Someone had oiled it well. This must be how the Janus people had gotten in to plant their bugs.