Hostile Territory

by T. L. Knighton

As he made his way to the hatch, he found himself tripping over his blanket that had followed him from the mattress on the floor—he still wasn’t comfortable in an actual bed. “Son of a…” he muttered.

  Finally reaching the hatch, he pressed the button to open it.

  Sliding into the wall, it revealed a troubled looking Adele on the other side.

  “Captain,” she said, oblivious to both his shirtless state and the scars on his torso.

  “Hey,” he said, failing to keep the surprise out of his voice. He’d expected the pilot to make it a night like she usually did. He’d seen Mary Gilbert’s pic, and she was certainly easy on the eyes, so unless she was just an ass as a human being, why would she be back so soon.

  “Everything okay?” Tommy asked.

  “We have a…complication.”

  Tommy sighed. So far, this trip had been nothing but one big complication, so the last thing he needed was one more. “What is it?”

  “She wants to come with us.”

  Closing his eyes and tilting his head toward the overhead, he felt his shoulders begin to sag in defeat, as if there was never going to be an end to the problems. “What did you tell her?”

  “I said I would have to see, but that is her condition. How can we not take her?”

  He rubbed his hand across his face, rubbing his eyes especially. “Well, for one thing, we can’t actually take anyone off this rock. We’re not cleared for it.”

  Adele smiled. “She said she will take care of that.”

  Tommy groaned as he considered. On one hand, he didn’t like it. They were already taking a risk by even coming to Armstead, but to dust off with a native on board? The Armstead Navy didn’t really care if they came willingly or not, they had a nasty tendency to blow up ships that had irked them in any way.

  “How is she going to keep the locks from reengaging?”

  Adele’s eyes shifted from his as she bit her upper lip. He knew that tell. She didn’t know and she didn’t want to admit it. It wasn’t a normal thing. The pilot was good at saying she didn’t know how to perform a task or anything job related, but there were awkward moments when she didn’t have information everyone else had—education in West Africa still lagged behind the rest of the worlds—when she did things like that.

  Deciding to spare the woman just a bit, Tommy said, “You don’t know.”

  Reluctantly, the woman shook her head.

  “Alright, let me sleep on it and see if we can work out anything to help her out, okay?”

  She smiled broadly and nodded, practically skipping down the passageway to her own room, leaving Tommy there to shake his head in amazement.

  ** ** **

  Nat Kelly enjoyed most aspects of being a criminal. She loved the rush she got from pulling a job, from making the perfect getaway, she even loved the tedious planning that went into a perfect break in. She chalked most of that up to her heritage. Family legend said she was descended from some Australian outlaw of some note back on Earth, even though she’d been born on Whitehurst.

  What she didn’t enjoy was the cramped quarters of a safe house.

  She’d managed to change clothing a day before, but in a rush and had piled everything up in a corner because Marcus needed the toilet, the bathroom being the only place fit for her to change. The rush required was less than pleasant, but going after the big man went was not an option. Especially since he’d picked the cuisine.

  After the quick change, she and Kane had talked a bit, then she crashed out. That meant she was just now getting her clothing out of the corner they’d been stuffed in.

  She picked up the wad of cloth and began making her way toward her sleeping area of the one bedroom she shared with Grissom, then a small sound caused her to stop and look down. It wasn’t particularly large. On the contrary, the disk was about the size of a small coin, but twice as thin and with a small, dim red light.

  There wasn’t any doubt what it was, or where it came from. Little sooka must have planted it on me when we tussled, she thought to herself. “Kane?” she called out. “Lookie what I found.” Yeah, he might not be thrilled with the tracker, or her for letting it be planted on her, but better to tell him so he could get them out of it than to let him find out about it the hard way.

  ** ** **

  Sitting on Sabercat, Michelle continued to listen to the audio from the other team’s safe house. Now, at least, she had something to keep her mind occupied. She had to write a script that would create an action at a certain time on a system she couldn’t access, and therefore couldn’t test. For many, that set of circumstances would have been frustrating. For her, it was enticing.

  At least it was until the audio picked up the sole woman on the other crew saying, “Kane? Lookie what I found.”

  “Merde,” she muttered and hit the intercom.

  “Captain,” she said into the intercom, “I think we have a problem.”

  Chapter 9

  Tommy tried to hide his concern as he watched Michelle work. She’d notified him of a problem and explained that the tracker had been found, without ever looking up from her work. To be fair, the script was important, but not if they couldn’t get the data. And, if the other side knew that Tommy knew where they were…

  It was all starting to give him a headache.

  “Do they know we’re listening?” he finally asked.

  She shook her head. “It does not appear so. There have been plenty of discussion about the tracker and what to do, which I doubt would be the case if they knew we were listening.”

  Made sense to Tommy, though he regretted the tracker had been found. Then again, it wasn’t like it was designed for stealth in the first place.

  “Which way are they leaning?” he asked.

  “They are inclined to believe that if we were going to come and take the chip from them, we would have already done so, but there has been some mention of arming themselves, just in case.”

  “Prudent,” he replied. He hated competent opponents sometimes. “They’re also probably right. If we could have, we probably already would have. The damned lock, though…”

  “That has been mentioned as well. There have been discussions as to whether the lock has delayed us.”

  “And?”

  “The one called Kane seems to believe that it’s irrelevant. He feels that either way, we haven’t come and aren’t going to so long as we are unable to dust off.”

  “He’s right,” Tommy grumbled.

  She nodded, still typing away. “But I am doing what I can to enable Adele’s friend to make that less of an issue.”

  Tommy nodded to the back of the woman’s head and instantly felt stupid. “Yeah, I’ll let you get back to it. Let me know if there are any more changes, especially if they arm up.”

  “Oui, I will.”

  With that, he left his computer expert alone and ventured into the bowels of his ship. He needed to think a bit.

  Ever since he’d gotten off of that island on Ararat, he’d tried to do the right thing. Unfortunately, the right thing wasn’t always that easy to discern. He and his crew had already helped facilitate a robbery of billions in gold and they’d already broken laws here on Armstead. In addition, he was a friend and business associate of a known member of the Russian mob, which had lost none of its power over the centuries.

  All of that looked bad on the surface, but what about deeper? Yes, they’d helped plan the break in, but it was to grab gold for the rightful owner. While they’d broken laws on Armstead, it was to get information about corruption. His relationship with a mobster stemmed from a rush job of picking up lifesaving medicine for the guy’s daughter.

  On the surface, it would be easy to count him as one of the bad guys, but he wasn’t and he knew it. He’d been one, after all.

  He’d tried to stop beating himself up over his past, and had pretty much succeeded on that front, but that didn’t change his history. It also didn’t change his confusion. Was he wearing a white hat, or a black one?<
br />
  It didn’t take long before his thinking shifted from his own moral quandary to the situation at hand. Atticus Kane would do everything in his power to hand that data chip to his customer. If Tommy and company took it, he’d find a way to get it back.

  That meant Tommy had to figure out a way to get Kane and his crew out of the equation. Killing them would do that just fine, but that wasn’t a route Tommy wanted to go down. He’d pulled the trigger on many a living thing, but they were all animals he’d been hunting. He hadn’t gunned down a man before, and while he liked to think he could, he wasn’t exactly in a rush to test that theory.

  No, he needed to figure something else out, some other way.

  Before he realized it, he’d circled around and had found the captain’s office—little more than a storage closet, truth be told, but he did need a place to do some work. He sat down at his desk and hit the intercom button.

  “Michelle? Send everything you’ve got on Atticus Kane to my pad, will you?”

  ** ** **

  Mary Gilbert hated everything around her. She hated the Port Authority control room she found herself crammed into for six hours a day, the slack-jawed mouth breathers she was forced to share the space with, and the entire blasted planet she’d been born on and then effectively held prisoner on. Most of all, however, she hated Winston Miller, her supervisor.

  Most of her coworkers figured she was just some misanthrope who despised all of humanity as a matter of course, and that was with Mary trying to play well with others.

  In fact, the only thing that had saved her from spending a lot of her free time being audited by Church officials had been the significant number of friends who spoke on her behalf. They assured the officials that Mary simply didn’t enjoy her work or he coworkers, but was an otherwise well-adjusted member of the church.

  The testimony on her behalf worked so well that the official had even suggested he would look to see if Mary could be reassigned to some other work. For a brief moment, she was hopeful that the Church of Eternal Vigilance, her captor for her entire life, would finally throw her a bone.

  That was three years ago.

  Hope became something that people talked about, but she didn’t believe did any good until the night before. That’s when she met her dark-skinned goddess. Her midnight complexion so different than the predominantly white skin tones she was used to seeing. That alone had been enough for her to be willing to risk her life simply be being seen speaking to the off-worlder.

  Adele had brought more than exotic looks and a svelte body that did things the church would not have approved of happening to Mary’s desire. No, she also brought an opportunity.

  The favor wouldn’t be simple. The lock had been placed by Winston, which meant that while she could unlock it, but he’d know she had, and that meant questions. Yeah, Adele said that Winston had been bribed to lock their ship, and knowing the twerp she had no reason to doubt the other woman. However, she had no real proof that would be accepted in a court, and that meant she’d probably end up under The Hill.

  No one wanted to go there if they could help it.

  Luckily, the off-worlder suggested a potential alternative, a program that would do nothing until a certain time, then remove the lock. She’d even suggested that it could erase its existence, allowing Mary to walk.

  Unfortunately, it was unlikely. Mary knew the software pretty well, and it would likely tag her as unlocking the ship and thus she would still find herself under The Hill. However, if she could leave with them…

  Adele said she’d see if that was possible and they’d meet up the next evening.

  Another twenty minutes, Mary thought as she looked at the clock. Her already boring day had stretched on an eternity as she’d sat and watched the clock rather than focusing on much of her work, but it would be worth it. Assuming, of course, that she could go with.

  Finally, it was time.

  It took every ounce of self-control she possessed to not hit the door at a dead sprint. Instead, she slowly picked up her belongings, then walked to the break area like she usually did to pick up a soft drink. While she might have been heading to a bar, she was worried any break in her routine would cause someone to ask her where she was going.

  While Foster’s wasn’t technically illegal, if anyone suspected the kind of clientele the bar normally had, she would have to answer more uncomfortable questions. The Church viewed homosexuality as an illness that could be cured, and centuries of failure on that front did nothing to dissuade them from that idea, and she could ill afford the time.

  Neither could the crew of Sabercat.

  The walk to Foster’s was actually pleasant enough. The weather for Armstead City during the spring rarely got about 25 degrees Celsius, and it was one of the few things about this planet that she truly loved.

  As she entered the dimly lit bar, she took a moment to scan the people there. For one, she wanted to see how many locals were there. Too many, especially wearing the traditionally preferred short haircuts of the blackboots, and she knew the church knew about this place.

  Luckily, there was only one or two—all regulars, thankfully.

  In the back corner sat Adele, long and lean wearing her beige tank top and a warm smile.

  Mary made her way over to the booth and sat down. “Hey,” she greeted the other woman.

  “Hello,” she said, her accent making her seem even more exotic. Then again, anyone from Earth felt exotic here. “How was your work?”

  Mary sighed. “Typically dull. How was your day?”

  “Eventful?”

  “Oh?” she asked the off-worlder.

  Adele nodded. “The captain has agreed you may come with us. Our technician is working on a program that should unlock the ship. She has some questions, however. Can you answer these and give this back to me tomorrow evening?”

  With that, the dark-skinned woman handed over a data chip.

  Mary nodded and took it. “Yeah, absolutely. I can’t believe…”

  “Believe,” Adele said. “Our captain does not like the way this world does things. He only asks where you want to go.”

  Go? She could pick? All her life, her goal had simply been to get off this planet, but she’d never really given any thought as to just where she would want to be. “I…I don’t know,” she finally stammered.

  Adele looked back at her and smiled softly. “It is fine. We can discuss this after Armstead is behind us.”

  Mary found herself nodding.

  “I still can’t believe this is happening,” she said.

  The other woman smiled and reached over, taking Mary’s hand, then squeezed. “It is.”

  Again, Mary nodded.

  “You know,” she started, “I’ve got my pad. Can I just answer the questions here?”

  Adele smiled and said, “Of course. If that’s what you wish.”

  ** ** **

  Atticus considered his options. Yes, it looked like Reilly and company knew where they were, but nothing had happened yet, which meant there wasn’t likely much to worry about. Still, Atticus wasn’t where he was by taking stupid chances.

  “So,” Nat started, “what are we to do?”

  Kane wanted to be furious with the woman, but he really couldn’t be. She wasn’t muscle. She handled locks and security systems. How was she supposed to know that a tracker had been slipped on her?

  Yes, he was less than pleased by her hygiene, but being the only woman on the crew did put her in a position he was less than familiar with after all, so he was even willing to let that slide. It also didn’t hurt that she was the best cat burglar in the business. Competence forgave a great many sins, after all.

  “I don’t know,” he finally answered. “This safe house is burned, obviously, but we need to hold steady until we hear back from our contacts.”

  She peered at him quizzically. “You can’t just call the bloke up and let him know where we are?”

  A fair question, Kane had to concede to himself
.

  “Because that number may well be burned. If it’s not, it may be if I try to use it again. I won’t risk our employer.”

  She nodded, indicating that she understood. Whether she did or not, Kane didn’t know. He didn’t care, either.

  After a long moment, Kane cleared his throat to grab everyone else’s attention. “We have to hold tight here until we get contact either today or tomorrow. Then we’ll hand the chip off to whoever comes and seek new accommodations. Does everyone understand?”

  “And what if the flunky they send ain’t authorized to take possession?” Marcus asked.

  “Doesn’t matter. Once it’s in the hands of a representative of our employer, it’s not in ours. Frankly, though, I don’t see why they’d send someone to set up something else. If they’d wanted to do that, they could have asked for Grissom’s pad ID,” he replied.

  The big man shrugged. “You’re the one who brought up the possibility.”

  “Because I get my cut, in part, for being a paranoid bastard,” he said in his London twang.

  “What if Reilly’s folks boost it after the client’s people take possession?” Grissom pondered aloud.

  Atticus smiled. “I don’t really give a damn at that point.”

  Chapter 10

  “You’re sure it’s ready?” Tommy asked his resident computer deity.

  “Oui,” Michelle replied. “Mademoiselle Gilbert gave me all of the information I needed, which let me finish this a bit quicker than I would have if I had needed to wait.”

  Tommy nodded his understanding. This was it. Now he had to plan a job to pilfer the chip from Kane. No pressure or anything.

  “Get that to Adele,” he offered, though he knew Michelle already knew the pilot needed it, then said, “I need to get with Harley and Cody.”

  It only took a few minutes to gather the two men around the table. He was kind of regretting the need to constantly borrow their eating space for planning, but it was the only room he could fit more than two people in that was quiet. Well, this and the cargo bay, and there was pie here. And, of course, chairs.