by Zen DiPietro
“Because of the missing relays or because something’s happened to them?” Omar asked.
Ditnya’s attention shifted to him. “That’s what we’re going to find out.”
“Doesn’t the PAC have ships already there?” Nagali asked.
“They’ve sent ships out. I doubt they’re looking in the right place.”
“Why would you know the right place if they don’t?” Cabot asked.
She smiled. “I have resources they don’t. That’s why they want my help, right? There’s a bootleg operation that runs out of the dark side of a moon. The planet below doesn’t even know it’s there.”
“Their own moon?” Omar asked, incredulous.
“Their technology is still developing, which is one of the reasons they haven’t been able to join the PAC. They have more important things to do on their own planet than worry about their moon.”
Cabot didn’t have much familiarity with the Zankarti system. They were fairly insular planets with few trade interests.
Which probably made them a good option for Barony.
“What do we do?” Nagali asked.
“I don’t have any eyes in that system right now,” Ditnya said. “So there’s nothing to do but wait.”
Cabot didn’t like that answer, and, judging from Omar and Nagali’s expressions, they didn’t either.
WITH TOO MUCH time on his hands, Cabot had the opportunity to explore Ditnya’s ship, the Bona Fide. He kind of liked the unusual name.
It was a good vessel, refitted for a moderate amount of luxury and maximum battle readiness. An interesting combination, but it made sense if the ship belonged to Ditnya Caine.
Per the PAC’s agreement with her, he had access to the bridge, but without any official position there, he felt uncomfortable among her people. Their curious and sometimes murderous glances irritated him. Ditnya and the PAC would need to formalize their agreement soon, as well as his official role on her ship. Then her people would recognize his authority over them.
At least, he hoped he’d have authority over them. He hadn’t seen the official agreement and all the inherent details therein. He needed to.
When they approached the Levana system, Cabot went down to the Outlaw and activated its communication system to generate the ship’s carrier signal. It wouldn’t look like anything to bystanders, but any of Fallon’s team would recognize the signal. He tied the ship’s communications to his comport and started hoping.
Almost immediately, his comport alerted him to an incoming message. With a sense of rising hope, he looked at it.
Hawk’s face appeared. “Cabot? What are you doing out here?”
“I brought a friend. We thought you might need help.”
Hawk glanced over his shoulder to something Cabot couldn’t see. The hulking tank of a guy wore a guarded expression. “It’s not a bad idea.”
“What can we do?”
Fallon’s face appeared over Hawk’s shoulder. “You’re on one of her ships, right? What’s it capable of?”
“She hasn’t been forthcoming with specs thus far. Shall I arrange a call to include her?”
“Yes,” Fallon said. “Immediately.”
CABOT CONSIDERED it a testament to his persuasive skills that only ten minutes later, he sat in a meeting room with Ditnya and a member of her crew who had never said a word to Cabot.
He understood the crew’s disregard. It wasn’t personal. They simply didn’t know how important or how expendable he was, and they were hedging their bets by not interacting with him at all.
Ditnya had also trained them to indulge their curiosity.
This time, on the larger screen, Cabot saw all four members of Fallon’s crew on the bridge of the Nefarious.
“We’re stuck,” Fallon explained. “We’re hiding behind the unpopulated fourth planet. Just as we got to the system, a stream of ships began arriving. If we come out of hiding, we’ll be seen, and I’m not confident we can fight our way out if those ships coming through decide to start shooting. They’re heavily armed ships, and there are too many for a single ship to take on.”
“What about two ships?” Ditnya asked.
“Three,” Cabot corrected.
Fallon turned slightly to exchange a look with her team. He had a feeling a lot of communication was happening, but he had no inkling of what passed between them.
“How much speed do you have?” Fallon asked. “Enough to bug out of here?”
“Are you thinking of a shoot and run scenario?” Ditnya asked.
“If necessary. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll just let us go along our merry way.”
“Not likely,” Ditnya remarked. “But we can try. Have you gotten any useful information?”
“Maybe a little. We didn’t have much time before the area got hot. We didn’t anticipate this much activity here.
“So far, I’ve met no resistance,” Ditnya said. “Maybe that’s because I’m skirting the outside of the system, but more likely it’s because this is not a PAC vessel. Of course, they could change their mind and suddenly start paying us a whole lot of attention.”
“Maintain your course, along the edge. Make them think you’re just passing by. At your current speed, you’ll be within our range in two hours.”
“And then?” Ditnya asked.
“We’re going to figure that out. We’ll call you back sometime before two hours have passed.”
The image went dark, but Ditnya remained staring at the screen. Cabot would have given a lot of cubics to know what she was thinking just then.
“She can run her scenarios. We’ll run ours. Cabot, remain here for when they call back.”
Cabot sat alone in the meeting room for nearly an hour, waiting for the call. It was a long time to be inactive. He’d rather have been doing something productive.
“They haven’t made any moves toward you,” Fallon said when she reinitiated contact. “As long as you stick to the same heading and speed, they’re likely to continue ignoring you. Get whatever long-range scans you can. As you approach, we’ll turn out ahead of you, trying to use your sensor shadow to hide us. If they’re focused on what they’re doing, maybe they won’t notice us.”
“That’s an awfully big maybe,” Ditnya said as she entered and sat.
Cabot wondered if she’d been standing in the hall, listening and waiting for an opportune moment to sweep in.
“It is. That’s why I’ve run numerous tactical scenarios as well. I’ll send you what we came up with.”
“And I’ll send you what we came up with.” Ditnya smiled coldly.
“Good. The more ideas, the better. Fallon out.” The screen blanked again.
Cabot sensed Ditnya’s irritation. She wasn’t used to people who didn’t bow and scrape around her.
She’d have to get used to it if she was going to work with the PAC.
Cabot wondered, though, if he should suggest to Fallon that she not be quite so casual in her interaction with Ditnya.
Nah.
He joined Ditnya on the bridge. Any further communication between the ships would need to occur there. The crew of the Bona Fide would know that they were working in cooperation with the PAC, if they didn’t already.
He suspected that most of them didn’t.
As they approached the fourth planet, the Nefarious came into view. It was a magnificent ship. Much newer than the Bona Fide, and just as well-armed.
Fallon piloted her ship on a course carefully designed to hide it as much as possible from the view of the Barony ships.
Cabot held his breath.
Eventually, he did take a breath, but for a long, tense hour, he watched the viewscreen at the front of the bridge, waiting to see if any of the Barony ships broke away. Hoping they wouldn’t.
He wished Nagali and Omar were there. Ditnya had refused to give them access, but Cabot felt alone among Ditnya’s people. It didn’t matter that if things went one hundred percent wrong and the Bona Fide got blown up, that th
ey’d get blown up right along with him. These were Ditnya’s people, not his, and it would always be that way.
That didn’t bode well for his agreement to work with her. He’d have to find some kind of workaround for that.
They reached the break-free point—the place where the Barony ships wouldn’t be able to catch them, even if they did decide to pursue.
Cabot breathed freely again.
Ditnya eyed him. “Well, that was exciting, wasn’t it?”
“You could call it that,” he agreed mildly.
“Get used to it. We have a lot of exciting times ahead.”
“About that,” he said. “We need to iron out the terms of our working together.”
“All I need to do is sign the agreement with the PAC to make the partnership binding.”
He shook his head. “That’s your agreement with them. I’m not PAC. I’m only involved because you insisted. That’s going to come at its own cost.”
She crossed her arms. “What are your terms?”
He knew he had her then. He, Cabot Layne, had the formidable Ditnya Caine at a disadvantage. “I’m going to have to give that some thought. I’ll prepare documents and send them over to you. In the meantime, do you mind dropping me off at Dragonfire on your way back to Dauntless? I want to take care of some things before I need to be away for an extended period of time.”
She smirked. “Your ship’s in my hold. Fly your damn self home. Think fast about those terms. I’ll expect a preliminary proposal in two days.”
“Agreed.” He smiled. Not his old benign shopkeeper smile, but a new, shark-like expression that promised vicious precision along with a dose of unpredictability.
Ditnya’s lips turned up with her own shark smile while her eyes conveyed a hint of respect.
Perfect. They might just make this thing work.
“I’ll get my crew ready and begin preflight checks.”
“Talk soon,” she said airily, refusing to turn her head to watch him as he walked to the back of the bridge.
He got the last word in before the doors closed behind him. “We will.”
This might even be fun.
11
Cabot went to Nagali’s borrowed quarters first. She’d be glad to leave Ditnya’s ship. Ditnya hated her, and Nagali was a little phobic about Ditnya having her launched out an airlock.
That was probably one of those phobias that was less about fear and more about plain good sense and self-preservation.
“How did it go?” Nagali’s eyes were wide.
“We got lucky. This time. We’re going to have to play it a whole lot smarter from now on. More strategic. You, Omar, and I are a team, and we have to stay ahead of both the PAC and Ditnya. We’re the little guys in the middle, and if we don’t stay out front, we’ll end up getting crushed.”
She reached out slowly and put her hand on his shoulder. “You seem different.”
“Different how?”
She gazed into his eyes, as if looking for something. “Well, like you, but twenty years ago.”
“Is that bad?”
“No, it’s good. Very good.” She smiled and to him, she looked just as she had when he first met her. Beautiful and warm and full of wickedness. “Can we leave now? I can be ready in two minutes. I didn’t even unpack.”
“In a second. One thing first.”
“What?”
He stepped closer and snaked his arms around her. “This.”
He tipped her head back and kissed her as thoroughly as he had the first time he’d kissed her twenty years ago.
When he stepped back, she was flushed and wide-eyed.
“I’ll get my bags.” She sounded a little breathless, but as she turned, she let out a bright, happy laugh.
He was definitely living in the moment now.
This was going to be fun.
MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR
Thank you for reading!
Reviews are critical to my being able to keep bringing you new books, so if you enjoyed this story and can spare a minute or two to leave a review on Amazon, I’d be grateful.
Please sign up for my newsletter to receive updates on new releases. Subscribers also get access to exclusive content and giveaways.
If you’re ready for more Mercenary Warfare, check out Calculated Risk. The PAC is about to see some things it’s never seen before!
I hope to hear from you!
In gratitude,
Zen DiPietro
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zen DiPietro is a lifelong bookworm, dreamer, and writer. Perhaps most importantly, a Browncoat Trekkie Whovian. Also red-haired, left-handed, and a vegetarian geek. Absolutely terrible at conforming. A recovering gamer, but we won’t talk about that. Particular loves include badass heroines, British accents, and the smell of Band-Aids.
Visit Zen’s website, where you can read reviews, author interviews, and other assorted fun stuff.
DRAGONFIRE STATION UNIVERSE
Dragonfire Station Book 1: Translucid
Dragonfire Station Book 2:Fragments
Dragonfire Station Book 3:Coalescence
Intersections (Dragonfire Station Short Stories)
Selling Out
(Mercenary Warfare Book 1)
Blood Money
(Mercenary Warfare Book 2)
Hell to Pay
(Mercenary Warfare Book 3)
Calculated Risk
(Mercenary Warfare Book 4)
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dragonfire Station Universe
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Message from the author
About the Author
Dragonfire Station Universe