Thieves' Guild Series (7 eBook Box Set): Military Science Fiction - Alien Invasion - Galactic War Novels

by C. G. Hatton

  The others were quietly curious, well aware of the honour they were being granted in being brought here, in awe of their surroundings. Hilyer veered towards the shelves lining the room, gawping at the artefacts. He peered at one piece, a carved instrument of some kind, and muttered under his breath, “Holy crap, that’s one of mine.” It was a revelation, like he’d never considered before where their acquisitions ended up.

  The kid looked round and couldn’t resist reaching to touch a medallion that was mounted on a stand, delicately and almost reverently holding the tarnished metal, stroking his thumb over the intricate, knotted design. “Hey LC, isn’t this the amulet you stole from that place on Winter.”

  LC glanced over, memories of pain and flight flashing into his mind. That tab had almost killed him. He managed a half-smile.

  They were like children.

  NG suddenly felt really old. It was hard to be sharing this. He waited for them to gather round and took a deep breath. “The man you’re about to meet,” he said quietly, “is the head of the Thieves’ Guild. Don’t say a word.” He looked at Hilyer. “Don’t touch anything. Don’t move an inch unless he tells you to.” He looked at LC and dropped into direct thought, ‘And for Christ’s sake, don’t even think about trying to read his mind. Are you okay?’

  LC raised his eyes and nodded slightly. He wasn’t okay by a long way but he wasn’t going to admit it so there was still some of that incorrigible spirit there.

  “Understand?”

  They all nodded then.

  NG turned to the door. The Man watched the activities of the guild personnel closely but from a distance. This was the first time he would meet any of them in person. NG rested his knuckles against the warm wood of the door. It felt like he was on test. Like everything he’d ever done would be judged on what happened in the next few minutes with these four individuals standing behind him.

  He rapped gently on the door.

  Chapter 19

  “You are hard on him. You are hard on them all.”

  “We do not have the luxury of time to be soft.”

  “They are young,” she said softly, “and the young do not comprehend the intricacies of the universe in the same way as you or I. You gambled with this virus, this elixir. Did it pay off?”

  He couldn’t answer that question. It could be years, centuries, before the effects were seen fully.

  He steepled his fingers in front of his face, felt his warm breath on his hands as he exhaled. “I had no choice,” he said eventually. “Knowing what was to come, I had no choice. And Nikolai had no choice but to obey.”

  “And deal with the consequences.”

  •

  LC sat, leaning his elbows on the table and slumping forward. “So what do we do now?”

  The lights in the office were low, temperature set to cool. They’d left Hil, Sorensen and Lulu in Science. For once Hil hadn’t argued and NG wasn’t sure if that was the influence of the Man or the fact that the kid realised the significance of the moment. The Man had kept the interview brief but he’d told them about the Order, Zang and the virus then sent the others to Science and ordered NG to take LC in hand. “Work with him,” he’d said ponderously. “Push him.”

  ‘I’ll push him alright.’

  LC glanced up.

  NG was standing, rifling through messages on his desk. He quickly dampened down that niggling voice inside. It was disconcerting to have to guard his thoughts. It was second nature to listen in to other people but the only place he’d ever had to be careful to shield his own mind was in the Man’s chambers.

  “We wait,” he said.

  “You should both get some sleep,” Evelyn said from the doorway, walking in and setting a tray onto the conference table.

  NG sent privately through the Senson, “Any word from Devon?”

  “No,” she sent back, pouring tea for them both and squeezing LC’s shoulder as she turned away. She dropped a couple of boards onto the desk. “Ostraban is asking to see you.”

  “Not now,” NG said. “Fend him off.”

  She nodded. “Also, Science are sitting on a package that one of our couriers brought in for you. They want to know what you want them to do with it.”

  “Addressed to me?”

  “Yes. It’s shielded. No origin. They’re worried it could be a bomb or some kind of biological weapon.”

  For Christ’s sake. “Tell them to open it.”

  Evie nodded again. She backed away, glancing over at LC as if she couldn’t quite believe he was back. He’d dropped his head down to rest on his folded arms, eyes closed but far from asleep.

  “Let me know if you need anything,” she said softly and left.

  NG picked up the two boards. Ostraban was investigating the death of Taynara A’Darbi. That message wasn’t subtle. He threw it down on the desk. The other was a stack of personnel assessments from Legal’s staff, one for every AI and a list of complaints at being grounded from the AIs themselves. It was a headache he had no inclination to address, not yet. He dropped the board onto the pile and searched through the drawer for a pack of cards.

  LC looked up as he sat at the table.

  ‘Why don’t you trust Skye?’ LC thought at him.

  NG reached for his tea. He closed his mind down. Abruptly.

  LC got the message.

  They were in a difficult position. He’d never worked this closely with anyone in the guild except Devon maybe, Evelyn at times. Certainly no one who could read his thoughts the way the Man could. But he was still the head of operations, head of the guild as far as anyone was concerned. And LC was just a field operative.

  ‘Oh no, no, no, don’t fool yourself. This child sitting in front of you will never be just a field operative again.’

  LC leaned forward. “Why don’t you trust Skye?” he said quietly, out loud, little more than a whisper.

  NG looked up. “Has Hil told you about Genoa?”

  LC nodded.

  “We screened everyone in Acquisitions, did you hear about that?”

  Another nod.

  “We have no way of screening the AIs.”

  LC frowned. “But Skye…?”

  “LC, I have no way of screening the AIs,” NG said bluntly, emphasis on the ‘I’.

  The kid got it then. “Ah.” He was trying to think if he’d encountered an AI since he’d contracted the virus and another piece of information clicked into place. Elliott. He flushed, trying to remember if he’d mentioned Elliott in his debrief.

  He had but NG had taken the whole story anyway in those few brief moments at the coast when LC had thrown open his mind. Elliott was one of the reasons the Man wanted the crew of that ship bringing in.

  He shuffled the cards and said casually, “Tell me about the freighter you ended up on.”

  “I put in all in the report,” LC said quietly. “You know everything.”

  “Tell me again. I need you to think about these people as you go through it – I need to know everything, even things you’ve forgotten.”

  LC bit his lip, trying not to argue. He took a deep breath but still didn’t speak.

  “Start with Elliott,” NG prompted.

  The kid looked tired, worn out and caught out. “He was some kind of tech guy,” he said wearily. “The Duck belongs to Gallagher and he swears blind it doesn’t have an AI but this guy Elliott controls the systems like it does.” He stopped and bit his lip again. “It was weird. I couldn’t read anything from him. Nothing. Even after I started getting the hang of it. It’s like there’s a dark void when he’s there in front of you.” He raised his eyes, knowing that NG knew all this and resenting the fact that he was being forced to go over it again.

  Apart from AIs, there was no living sentient being that NG wasn’t able to read in some form or other. It would be interesting to meet Elliott.

  “He’s a jerk,” LC said in response to that thought. “And he knows about the virus. He fixed me up after I got shot on Poule. I should have died.”<
br />
  “Which is why we need to bring him in,” NG said softly. “What about the others?”

  “Hal Duncan was Earth marine corps,” LC said. “He saved my life on Poule. He got caught up in some kind of petty mob family squabble when we got back to Sten’s World. He was dying. It was Elliott who said I had the only way to save him. We infected him with the virus. I had no choice.”

  “Do you know his background?” Hal Duncan had been a breeze for Legal to research. The guy had an impressive military record to his name.

  “Some of it.”

  He knew more than some of it but he didn’t want to go there. Duncan had served in the front line of colonial enforcement actions, heroically by all accounts, but LC had seen some of those battles from the other side and they weren’t memories he wanted sparked.

  “What were the effects of the virus on Duncan?”

  LC exhaled a breath he was holding, exasperation barely constrained as he said quietly, “NG, I’ve told you all of this.”

  In the light of the Man’s recent orders, he wanted to hear it again. He wanted to know what was likely to be going on in Science with three of his own people.

  “Tell me again.”

  LC’s eyes flashed with frustration. “He was wasted for four days then woke up reading minds. What was I supposed to do? He knew about the guild before I realised what he was doing.” He drained the last of his tea and spun the cup on its base.

  One thing the kid didn’t mention out loud was that Duncan had recovered from the effects of the virus faster than he had. Way faster. It wasn’t resentment that kept him from saying it, it was a really bad feeling deep down inside that he’d released something, something he was managing when it was just himself and as soon as he spread it to Duncan, he lost control. Out of the two field-operatives, Hilyer was the control freak. And it was freaking LC out that he was freaked out about it.

  “Tell me about DiMarco.”

  LC groaned softly and started tapping at the tea cup. His opinion of Gallagher’s pilot was mixed. “He’s even more of a jerk than Elliott,” he said but felt bad saying it. “He used Gallagher’s ship to run guns.” To outlaws in the Between, and there was the dilemma – LC had been on the run himself when he ran into them. It had made for a strange camaraderie that the kid was still feeling guilty about.

  “Does he know about the virus?”

  “No, I said he doesn’t or least he didn’t when I left them. I don’t know what Hal might have said.”

  “Can we trust DiMarco?”

  LC choked back a laugh then met NG’s eyes with a serious consideration. “Yes. Maybe. Shit, what can I say? He’s a pirate but he didn’t sell me out when the bounty hunters found us on Tortuga.”

  “If he knows about the bounty, he knows about the guild,” NG said bluntly.

  It had been cited in the original contract that was touted around publicly. That was one of the most difficult factors in the mitigation of this whole situation. Media had had a nightmare trying to damage control their reputation.

  LC went cold. He hadn’t known. He didn’t think DiMarco had known while he was there but Tierney, the leader of the colony, would have found out. The place had been teeming with bounty hunters when they left. His hand started shaking.

  They’d find out soon enough whether they could trust DiMarco when the guy was brought in.

  “What about the others?” NG said.

  “They don’t know anything.”

  No wonder Mendhel was the only handler they’d ever had who could manage LC. It was trying. “Tell me about them anyway.”

  LC pushed the cup away. “Bill Gallagher owns the Duck. He’s a freighter captain.” Decent guy was the assessment sitting there in the kid’s mind. Too decent to pull him into anything to do with the guild. He didn’t want to say any more because he didn’t want to make Gallagher a person of interest to NG. But, considering the Man’s reaction, something from that initial burst of information that LC had thrown out when they were talking outside Frank O’Brien’s place had already tagged William Gallagher as being of interest to the guild. Immense interest. More than Elliott or Duncan in the scheme of things.

  “What was his story?” he asked softly.

  LC looked up, dismayed that NG knew. “He claimed he was shot down by aliens out in the Erica system. It was some kind of accident. He had his papers pulled. Everyone said he was mad. I thought he was okay.”

  “Any details?”

  “He never talked about it much. Why is that so important?”

  NG ignored the question. “What about the other engineer? Garrett?”

  LC rolled his eyes. “Oh Christ, Thom is just a young kid who covered for me, NG. Why do we need to pull him in?”

  Thom Garrett was more than just a young engineer. LC knew that and he answered his own question. “Gallagher.”

  Garrett was old Earth military. Legal hadn’t been able to find definitive evidence but it looked like the kid was from one of the oldest and most reputable military families on Earth, a Rear Admiral’s grandson who’d disappeared from all records two years ago. They had no idea why he was out in the mining colonies.

  “I thought he might have been a drop out,” LC said quietly, “but I knew he was wired with a Six which is pretty high end hardware for a drop out. Nothing added up, but nothing was adding up about anything.” And I was just trying to stay alive, he didn’t add. He had a headache pounding behind his eyes.

  NG blocked out the niggling second-hand pain he was picking up and reached for the jug of tea, aware that LC was watching him, frowning, wondering how he’d just managed that.

  “Try it,” NG said.

  “What?”

  “You need to learn to control it.” NG picked up the cards, shuffling and laying the deck carefully on the table between them.

  LC was staring at him, wanting to go get a beer, wanting anything but to face up to this.

  NG gestured to the stack of cards. “Take one.”

  LC rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, wanting to argue, but he took the top card, glanced at it and placed it face down on the table.

  NG read it easily, feeling the barriers the kid tried to throw into place but breaking through without any effort. “Three of hearts,” he said, reaching forward and turning the card over.

  Three of hearts.

  “Again,” he said.

  It took three more cards before LC started to put up any real defence.

  ‘Pathetic.’

  LC looked up, confusion flashing in his eyes.

  NG ignored it. He slid a card off the pile, took a brief look and placed it face down on the table.

  He felt a tentative reach from the kid but then LC dropped his gaze to the card and shook his head.

  “I don’t know.”

  ‘You’re a fool to even let him come close.’

  “Try harder.”

  LC was pale, thinking that he didn’t know how to try harder, he didn’t even know how this worked, try harder at what?

  “So don’t try,” NG said softly, still keeping his guard up. “Just take it.”

  LC raised his eyes slowly, heart pounding, half-heartedly trying to read the information from NG’s mind.

  NG fended him off easily.

  “I can’t beat you,” LC said quietly.

  “I’m not asking you to beat me – just tell me what the card is.”

  LC stared, resentful and tired, but then he blinked, slowly.

  That time the intrusion was sudden and brutally clean.

  The shock hit them both simultaneously.

  Something snapped inside.

  NG reeled, shoved violently aside by the strength of the darkness deep down at that split second instant as the unexpectedly powerful attack broke through his defences.

  He felt himself take hold of LC’s mind and hold fast, matching power with power.

  The kid jerked backwards, breathing fast, trying to break free, knowing he’d overstepped a boundary and franticall
y wondering what the hell had just happened.

  NG felt like he was slipping away. The scene faded, blurring as if he couldn’t quite focus.

  He fought to keep control but it felt like he was pinned under water. He couldn’t breath, couldn’t move.

  He heard himself say, “Oh, now the fun begins,” hardly recognising his own voice.

  “NG…?” LC muttered.

  ‘Don’t,’ he tried to think but the words wouldn’t form inside his head. He was trapped and mute. It felt like he was drowning.

  He felt the power of the force aimed at LC build slowly, the kid starting to squirm as the pain increased.

  ‘Fight it, for Christ’s sake, LC, fight it.’

  LC gasped, grinding his palm against his forehead.

  NG could do nothing but watch. He was numb. He could see that LC was struggling, curling up, clasping both hands to his head, and he could feel himself maliciously increase the assault.

  LC looked up, a trickle of blood dripping from his nose, eyes bloodshot. “NG,” he gasped, desperately trying to block it and failing.

  “I’m not your ‘New Guy’,” NG heard himself say, sneering. “Didn’t you figure that out yet?”

  NG felt cold and helpless, locked away. He couldn’t access the Senson, couldn’t so much as twitch a finger. He felt himself stand up slowly.

  LC flinched away, scrambling to his feet, stumbling. “NG, don’t.”

  “I have a name… ” Cold and malevolent.

  “Sebastian,” LC whispered. He backed into the corner. “Where’s NG?”

  ‘I’m right here!’ NG screamed.

  He felt himself smile and take a step forward. If he touched LC, the kid was dead and there was nothing he could do to stop himself.

  Chapter 20

  “Ah, I understand now why you wished to see me.”

  The way she was looking at him was not quite pity, not quite sympathy.

  “Sebastian,” she said. “In all you have told me so far, I almost saw this coming. Why did you not?”