Book Read Free

Conflagration 1: Burning Suns

Page 24

by Lisa Wylie


  “I’m sure that won’t prove necessary,” Keera parried.

  Jennifer licked her lips and winked salaciously. “Suit yourself, but you don’t know what you’re missing.”

  Keera felt her cheeks heat, and dropped her gaze as she floundered for a response. “I, uh…”

  “Oh, Jesus, stop that,” Jennifer cut her off, voice pained. “I look terrible when I blush.”

  Keera burst out laughing, and the awkward moment evaporated. “So,” she continued, “I’ll lead them someplace quiet, take them down, then borrow their identity for a few hours.”

  “Then you’ll just report back and have a snoop through Gullane’s operation?”

  Keera nodded, but Jennifer shook her head. “Uh uh. This isn’t Orden’s apartment we’re talking about, this is a galaxy-wide arms dealer’s personal fortress. You ain’t going without backup.”

  “And how exactly would I explain your presence?”

  Jennifer frowned. “Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. We need to know a little more about the place before we commit to any decisions.”

  “All right. I’ll do some more research on the compound layout, but we need to move fast. Before Orden does the decent thing and warns Gullane that he gave him up.”

  “Orden’s never done the decent thing in his life. You scared him pretty good. He isn’t likely to provoke Gullane by admitting he ratted him out. But yes,” Jennifer held up a hand to forestall any objections, “the sooner the better.” She got to her feet and drained her coffee. “I’ll get us under way for Chronos Four. You get as much data on the estate as you can, and we can get started as soon as we deliver our cargo.”

  ***

  “Honey, I’m home!”

  Jennifer’s flippant greeting echoed up from the airlock. Keera closed the code update she’d been tinkering with to occupy herself, and opened a new command dialog, working her way into the dockyard’s security systems and then to their video monitoring suite to pick up the camera feeds from outside their dock. “I’m in the wardroom,” she called back.

  Jennifer’s boots thumped up the ladder, then the human was at her back, leaning over her shoulder to look at the feed. “I brought you back a pet goon,” she said. “He was loitering around the concourse when I came in. Big fella, bald, hit every branch on the ugly tree on the way down.”

  Keera pointed at a likely candidate. “Him?”

  “Yep, that’s the one. He’s pretty good. Moves real quiet for a guy with that build.” Jennifer leaned closer, studying the image, her breath warm against Keera’s cheek. “You gonna be able to handle him?”

  “Yes. Your skin gives me increased reach and height, and I have far quicker reflexes than a human.”

  Jennifer shuddered, pulling back. “Damn. Looking at you from behind I’d kind of forgotten about that.”

  “Oh, don’t be so delicate,” Keera snorted derisively as she rose and turned to face the human. “Get your clothes off.”

  “So much for foreplay, huh?” Jennifer teased, her eyes alight with sudden mischief. “Hey, if you’re me then technically if we make out it’d be self-pleasure, right?”

  “Ugh. Really?” Keera objected, blushing.

  Jennifer cackled wickedly. “Gotcha. Damn if you ain’t an easy mark for someone so cynical.”

  Keera ground her jaw. “Can we get on with this, before your pet goon gets bored and wanders off?”

  “You, Agent Naraymis, are officially no fun,” Jennifer sighed as she began to strip.

  “Work first. Fun later. And no…” Keera shot the human a warning glance, “that’s not an offer. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of future opportunities to have sex with yourself.”

  “Ooh, ouch. She bites,” Jennifer chuckled.

  Keera changed into Jennifer’s outfit, cringing slightly at the residual body heat. She buckled on the weapons holster and belt, clipped on the pouch containing her own gear, and slid the heavy leather duster over her shoulders. “How do I look?”

  “Badass,” Jennifer approved with a wink. “Be careful out there, though.”

  Keera gave her a confident grin. ”Don’t worry. This bit should be child’s play.”

  Jennifer’s smile faded, her expression suddenly growing cold. “I’m just warning you. This guy might be muscle, but he’s not stupid. If I hadn’t been looking for him I might not have picked him up. And I can’t be sure he’s alone. Don’t underestimate him.”

  Keera nodded slowly. “I won’t.”

  “Good. Because if you get caught, I’m not coming after you.”

  “That’d be more trouble than I’m worth, right?” Keera retorted archly. She felt oddly hurt by the sudden indifference, and was satisfied to see the retaliatory jab get through the human’s guard as Jennifer flushed.

  “That’s right,” Jennifer agreed, tone cool in spite of the heat in her cheeks. “You got a problem with that?”

  “No, it’s fine. I understand.” Keera met Jennifer’s gaze for a long moment, then nodded. “I’ll be in touch.” Whatever had upset the human, now wasn’t the time to deal with it.

  Gullane’s henchman picked her up within a hundred metres of the dock gate, and Keera led him on a long, convoluted route through the dock’s retail mall, browsing slowly through a random selection of shops before heading into the bar at the far end of the promontory. She made her way to the women’s washroom and shifted to the skin she’d used to snare Orden. Shucking off Jennifer’s coat, she stuffed it into her pack and replaced it with the dark, plain hooded sweater she’d adopted. Then, she slipped out the fire exit and walked back in through the front door of the bar, picking a shadowed corner from which to keep watch.

  Jennifer had been right. Her tail wasn’t stupid. He realised within two minutes that “Jennifer” had given him the slip, making a call on his comms that also indicated that he hadn’t been alone. Interesting. Why spend more than the minimum effort making sure Jennifer isn’t going to cause any more trouble?

  The thug waited one more minute, then he left the bar, his expression surly. Keera followed him at a discreet distance to a public parking lot near the docks. When she saw him unlock a nondescript hovercar with blackout windows, she slipped her loaded hypodermic ring onto her finger and broke into a fast walk, waving at him frantically.

  “Sir? Excuse me, sir, could you help me?”

  He turned with a scowl, and Keera threw her arms around his neck, gluing her lips to his and muffling his startled cry of surprise. She jabbed him just under the skull, holding him tightly as he went limp, then lowered him gently into the back seat of the hovercar.

  Climbing in beside him and locking the door, she administered a second drug, a slower-acting sedative that would keep him down for twenty hours, then wrestled him out of his clothing, cursing the confines of the vehicle as she swapped outfits once more. The initial kiss hadn’t provided sufficient DNA, so she screwed up her courage and opened his mouth, running her tongue around his teeth and trying not to gag at his rancid breath—she didn’t remember kissing being quite so distasteful from her immersion training.

  Pulling back, she fought the urge to spit, forced the saliva sample back to her receptors, and skinshifted again. She crawled through to the driver’s seat and started the vehicle, nosing gently out of the parking lot and into the street that circled the dock as she opened a comm line back to the Fortune. “Jennifer, come in?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Our mutual friend has personal transportation, so you tagging along just got easier. Meet me at the passenger pick-up point. I’m all dressed up.”

  “You got it.”

  Jennifer arrived within five minutes. “Well, you’ve looked prettier,” she sniggered as she settled into the passenger seat, “but great work getting us a ride.”

  “Thanks.” Relieved that the human seemed to be over her fit of pique, Keera outlined the next part of her plan. “We should park up for a few hours someplace, wait till it gets late. There’s less chance of random encount
ers with the staff at night.”

  “Sounds good. We can pack Sleeping Ugly back there in the trunk, too. How long will he be out?”

  “Well, put it this way,” Keera remarked, “if we’re still in there when he wakes up, it’ll be because we got caught.”

  “Don’t jinx it,” Jennifer muttered.

  ***

  After laying low in a busy entertainment complex for a few hours (during which Keera took the chance to sleep off the worst of her shift fatigue) they prepped their gear and drove out to the estate. The biometric scan on the gate allowed them entry to the grounds, and a second lock got them into the darkened, deserted parking garage beneath the main building. “If we do run into anyone, let me do the talking,” Keera warned as she cut the engine. “Since I’m supposed to be here.”

  Jennifer nodded. “Right. Did you look at the building layout?”

  “Yes. We’re headed for Gullane’s private office.”

  “That’s on the first floor, just outside his personal apartment, right?”

  “Right.”

  “OK then, let’s roll.”

  Keera led Jennifer through an ostentatiously decorated series of high-ceilinged halls. The whole central building appeared to be a simulacrum of an ancient Terran mansion, and it was almost eerily clear of staff or guards in the small hours of planetary morning. Keera, expecting to be challenged at least once, stopped at every junction to listen, but nothing and no one was moving.

  She didn’t like it.

  “What’s wrong?” Jennifer demanded in a low hiss on one such check at the top of the stairs.

  “I don’t know,” Keera replied softly, unease intensifying. “I just… it’s too quiet.”

  “All the more reason not to delay,” Jennifer chided.

  Keera took a slow, calming, breath. “Right. Come on, it’s just along here.”

  The office door was unlocked and ajar, sending Keera’s apprehension rocketing. She tapped Jennifer on the shoulder, pointed at the door, and mimed a pistol with two fingers. Jennifer dipped her head in agreement, easing her pistol free of its holster and taking up a position next to the door. She took aim, and nodded.

  Keera shoved the door open with the flat of her hand. Jennifer darted through, weapon levelled. The changeling counted off a second then followed, narrowly avoiding crashing into Jennifer’s back as the human had ground to a halt just inside the door. Looking past her, Keera quickly realised why.

  Octavius Gullane was sitting at his desk.

  And Octavius Gullane was unmistakeably dead.

  “Aw, crap,” Jennifer muttered, staring at the neat fist-sized hole drilled through the centre of his chest.

  Keera ignored her, hurrying to the window and risking a quick look out. Nothing moved, but the stillness only worsened the itch between her shoulder blades. “We’ve been set up.” Backing away from the window, she ducked into a crouch as she moved to the dead man’s side. “Keep away from the window,” she instructed as she looked over Gullane’s body. “Damn. He’s been dead for at least a day.”

  “He can’t have been,” Jennifer protested. “I spoke to him this afternoon.”

  “You saw him?”

  “I saw a vid. The guy I spoke to looked like that.” Jennifer pointed for emphasis. “Minus the gaping hole in the chest.”

  “You spoke to a changeling,” Keera surmised. It was the only logical explanation.

  Jennifer curled her lip in a sneer. “Fuck. You bastards get everywhere, don’t you?”

  “Never mind that now,” Keera hissed. “We’re in trouble. He’s been posed in that chair—there’s no blood in here. Someone knew we were coming. We’ve got to get the data and get out of here, fast.” She synched her comm wristband into Gullane’s desk terminal. “It’s an isolated stack, just as I suspected. And it’s totally unsecured.”

  “Well, that’s odd,” Jennifer muttered.

  “No odder than finding this guy with a hole in his chest. It’s all one big honey trap.” Keera wrinkled her nose. “Copying the data will take too long, there’s too much. I can set up a broadcast frequency, then we can pull the data down to the Fortune remotely.”

  “Stop talking, start doing.” Jennifer moved behind the desk and drew her sidearm, covering the door as Keera slid a transmitter into one of the stack’s peripheral ports. Enabling it, she used her comm wristband to hook it up to the Fortune and started the upload. She unplugged the monitor unit, removed the whole stack from the desk, and stashed it behind the overstuffed leather sofa in the corner.

  “The longer it runs, the more data we’ll get, and if they’re too busy looking for us…” Even as she spoke, the household security alarms began to wail.

  “Shit,” Jennifer cursed. “I’m gettin’ real fuckin’ tired of that happening.”

  Keera snorted in derision as she moved to the door. “Somebody really has it in for you, don’t they?” Easing the antique handle down, she cracked the door open and looked out. “All clear. Getting back to the garage is our best bet.”

  When she got no response, she looked back to see Jennifer glaring at her, expression harsh with hostility and suspicion. “You set me up, Naraymis, didn’t you?” the human asked sharply.

  Keera stared at her. “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  “Jennifer…” Keera couldn’t believe her ears. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “You said it yourself. It’s too quiet. Too easy. The museum was easy too.” Jennifer’s gaze clouded with distrust as she aimed her gun at Keera. “Solinas made everything easy, then he made his play.”

  Keera rolled her eyes heavenward. “We don’t have time for this,” she grated. Despite every instinct she had screaming at her to flee, she shifted to her normal human skin. “Please, Jennifer,” she appealed, locking her gaze to the human’s and throwing every ounce of sincerity she possessed into the look. “Please trust me.”

  Jennifer still hesitated, hope warring with misgiving in her eyes.

  Footsteps sounded in the distance, drumming a crescendoing cadence on the tiled floors.

  “Damn it, Jennifer!” Keera swore. There was no way out of the office except through the door. They’d be cornered. Act, don’t react. “I’m leaving,” she declared. “Come with me or don’t, it’s up to you, but I’m not getting trapped in here. If you don’t trust me, now’s your chance to get rid of me.”

  She turned her back and walked away, shoulders clenched in anticipation of the shot. When it didn’t come, she darted along the corridor, ducking behind a large chesterfield chair and peeking out carefully just as a party of shadowed figures gained the top of the stairs. Come on, Jennifer, get out of there.

  The lights flickered to life, bathing the corridor in a harsh fluorescent glare. Keera pulled back into her cover, straining to hear.

  There was a high-pitched whine as someone charged a blaster, and then a harsh, metallic voice rang out.

  “You are surrounded, thief. Surrender, and you will not be harmed.”

  Don’t be stupid, Jennifer, please, Keera begged silently.

  There was a moment of terse silence, and then Jennifer’s voice sounded, clear as a bell.

  “Oh, I don’t fucking think so.”

  A single shot rang out, and the hallway was plunged into darkness.

  Something clattered against the wooden-panelled wall. A second something skittered along the tiled floor.

  “Grenades!” a panicked voice bellowed.

  “Shit, take cover!”

  Keera closed her eyes and covered her ears. She heard a dull, muffled crump, felt the ground shake as the grenades detonated. Not explosives—the shockwave was too weak. Stunners perhaps, or flash-bangs.

  She opened her eyes to the darkness, just as gunfire erupted from the direction of the office. A single shooter, using a ballistic weapon rather than a blaster. Eleven shots, and then, as the echoes died away, curses and groans of pain filled the air.

  “Shitting Creators, where the fuck did she g
o?”

  “She was right there—why didn’t you shoot her?”

  “I tried man, there was fuckin’ nothin’ in the power pack. Useless Terran piece of shit.” The first voice sounded bewildered. “I had it primed, how the hell did it just die?”

  “Because she used a fucking EMP flash, you moron!” another voice snarled. “Somebody get me a damn light! Chel, check the team.”

  “Did the changeling leave?” the metallic voice demanded coldly.

  “I’ll check.” Footsteps rang on the floor. “She’s not there.”

  “Seven casualties, sir, four dead, three injured,” Chel reported.

  “Neither of them can have got far,” the metallic voice judged, edged now with anger. “You will find them. I want them both alive.”

  “Did you hear Chel say four of my men are dead, and another three are injured?” the voice Keera had pegged as the chief lieutenant objected angrily. “That human’s more trouble than she’s fucking worth.”

  “That is not your decision to make,” the metallic voice replied curtly. “However, she does not need to be able to do more than tell us what she knows, so you may use whatever methods you see fit to curb her actions. Now, I have issued my orders. Obey them.”

  “Yes, sir.” The first voice sounded resigned. “All right, you lot, she can’t have got far. Split up, and stay in contact. If you find that human bitch, anything goes as long as she’s still breathing. Chel?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Find Bravo team, let them know we’re out of communication and what the plan is. And keep your eyes skinned for the other one.”

  “On it.”

  “All right, move!”

  Keera held her breath, willing her heart to quiet down as footsteps drummed past her. When they died away, she counted slowly to twenty, then risked a cautious look around.

  She was alone.

  Jennifer was gone.

  God and all the Creators, what do I do now?

  - Thank you for reading our work. We hope you’re enjoying the universe we’ve built. Check out the links below to continue exploring the Burning Suns.

  You can show your support and engage with us on our Facebook page:

 

‹ Prev