by Kal Spriggs
That was far more money than I’d expected. Far more money than I believed that Wessek could have put together. But then again, he’d been a very successful pirate and he’d owned several ships, maybe this was just another business deal to him. Or maybe House Mantis really did hate them that much so he’d scraped together everything he could.
I didn’t know which one it was, but this had gone from a simple heist to the kind of money that I had a hard time contemplating. I mean, I’d wanted passage offworld, but I might be able to buy a ship for this kind of money.
The Hunter dropped the stack back in the case and he smiled broadly. “I think this will be a fruitful relationship.” He cocked his head, as if he were listening to something. I realized he must have some kind of neural implant. “She is on her way,” he said after a moment.
I tensed as I heard a skimmer come in low over the factory, its turbine engines loud even over the rumble of thunder and the drum of heavy rain on the roof. We stood there, quietly waiting. I adopted a glower as I stared at one of the escorting Hunters. I didn’t recognize the man, but I began to psych myself up. I’d seen three Hunter raids. I knew what they did, knew how they acted. Could I do what needed to be done?
Before I could find an answer, the door to the rooftop opened and a woman, clad in a dress of some kind, came down the stairs. She slunk down the catwalk, three Hunters ahead of her, and three more behind. As she came into the light, I felt my throat constrict. She was tall and lean, her features fox-like and she moved with a strange, lithe grace that was almost hypnotic. She didn’t wear a weapon or body armor, unless her dress hid some, which I found unlikely with how it clung to her figure. She moved like a snake, her hips swinging side to side while her head and upper body remained still. I found myself sweating and holding my breath, right up until she stopped, less than two meters away, her Hunters fanning out to either side around her.
“Wessek,” she said, her voice as oddly snake-like as her gait.
He gave a half bow, “Kinabalu.”
“Your payment is satisfactory,” she told him. She glanced at me, her golden eyes sweeping over me, leaving me feeling like I’d been scanned. “You and your son are willing to swear fealty to me?”
Wessek swallowed, his expression pale, “I am.”
I just gave a nod, not really sure what else to do. This was going faster than I’d expected, faster than I’d planned. Her skimmer had only just landed. Had the civets had time to get aboard? Were Francis’s people in place? For that matter, could I do what I’d said I’d do? This all hinged on so many things that for just a moment, my mind blanked and I had to fight the urge to flee.
No, I told myself, this is my opportunity to get revenge. If I did this right, then Wessek was going to lose everything, he might not even survive. I’d get their money and Ted and I could go home. I had to do this, I had to take action.
“Kneel,” Kinabalu commanded, a tone of steel in her soft, sibilant voice.
Wessek went to one knee and I awkwardly knelt next to him.
“Wessek, do you swear fealty to me and to House Mantis?”
Wessek swallowed and he darted a glance at me. Again, I caught a bit of puzzlement, as if he knew something wasn’t right, but he didn’t have time to think about it. “I do,” he said.
Kinabalu turned her golden eyes on me, “Vars, do you swear fealty to me and to House Mantis?”
I looked up, meeting her gaze, “No, I don’t,” I said, bringing up my pistol and firing into her from point blank.
***
“Gun!” Someone shouted in the office, “Gunfire!”
“They’re double-crossing us!” I shouted into Vars’ comm unit and presumably into the earpieces of all of his security.
At the same time, hidden in the rafters of the factory, Francis’s Crooked Daggers opened fire with their guns.
I wasn’t very trusting of their accuracy, so I swept the briefcase off the table, caught it, and started scrambling for the door, even as I started counting down in my head. A hand caught my foot though and I looked back, seeing Wessek had me by the leg. “Why?” He shouted at me, “Why would you—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish. One of the Hunters had come up behind him, the man’s face creased in hate as he brought up his weapon and fired into Wessek’s back. The pirate who’d killed my family, the pirate who’d destroyed my life, jerked as bullets struck him in the back. The hunter emptied his magazine into Wessek and I used that moment to roll over, align my pistol on his center of mass, and fire. I put three rounds into the Hunter, but his body armor seemed to stop them. He gave me a grimace of hate as he brought up his rifle, aiming it at me, and I leveled my sights on that face and squeezed the trigger twice more.
Wessek’s grip had faltered and I kicked myself free of him even as I crawled for the door. Gunfire echoed around me and pirates and House Mantis Black Cloaks were going down. I eased through the back door and into the admin offices. I’d lost my count and I didn’t know how much time I had as I kicked the door closed in the face of a pirate who’d been running for safety. A moment later bullets stitched the upper part of the door and I heard a thud as a body struck the door.
I rushed over to the closet, past the tied and bound form of Vars. Some part of me was tempted to cut his ropes, but I didn’t have time and I didn’t want to risk him attacking me. I dove into the closet and then crawled through the vent, not caring at this point if I got dirt on my uniform. As I exited the vent, I found Jonna waiting for me, across a meter gap of empty space between the vent and one of the support struts for the ceiling. Looking out, I saw the Crooked Daggers were using their ropes to climb up, exiting through various windows and holes in the ceiling. Gunfire continued to rip apart the overseer’s office as both groups of pirates killed one another.
“Give me the case!” Jonna held out her hand. I froze, though, wondering if I could really trust her. Wondering if she was going to leave me behind or kill me.
“Hurry, the fuse is lit, we don’t have time!” She snapped.
I tossed her the case and then leapt the narrow gap. She caught the case with one hand and grabbed me by the front of the shirt with the other, pulling me to safety. “Let’s go!” She shouted.
I followed her, both of us scrambling through the rafters to the nearest exit point. I gave her a boost as we got there and then jumped up myself, the heavy rain and wind lashing my face as I scrambled for purchase. For one terrifying moment, I started to slide back, my fingers slipping on the wet roof, and then Jonna reached out and caught my hand, pulling me up.
Up on the roof, most of the Crooked Daggers were running north, moving to the ropes they had positioned to swing to the next building. Francis was the only exception, he ran right to where we were, “This way!” He shouted, pointing off the other direction.
“That’s not the plan, you go with your people!” I shouted at him.
“I’m not letting you and that case out of my sight!” He shouted back, even as rain and thunder slapped us from the storm… but then there was a different sound I heard.
I looked over, just as a group of brown and gray streaks raced across the rooftop, four of them continuing to run while the fifth paused and stood on his haunches, “Humans slow,” Lokka noted.
The sound I’d heard was the engines of skimmers. All four of the skimmers from House Mantis had started spooling up and I saw gunners aboard one of the craft start to swing their cannons around towards us. Oh crap.
“I told you to disable them!” I shouted at Lokka.
“Boring!” Lokka shouted back. I started to run, knowing it was futile. We were going to die here all because I’d expected a stupid animal to follow a plan—
The pitch of engines suddenly shifted and I looked back over my shoulder… just as the engine pods on the lead skimmer blew apart, sending pieces of the craft and the crew tumbling through the air. A moment later, they blew apart on the next craft, then the third. The fourth and fifth skimmers started to dive,
as if they were expecting gunfire, but they too exploded.
“Fun,” Lokka chittered.
Those explosions, though, had reminded me. We were short on time. “Let’s go!” I shouted, running in the direction of our own escape. The others followed and we made it to the edge of the roof and the long ladder down the side. Jonna slid down first, but I didn’t wait for her to reach the bottom before I started down myself. She barely rolled out of the way before I hit the ground and rolled out of Francis’s way. I lay back, gasping, looking up at the rooftop, “I hope—”
I didn’t have a chance to finish. The improvised bomb I’d put together, from the bits I remembered from my classes on improvised explosives back at the Academy Prep School, finally exploded.
I hadn’t really known how powerful to make it. I didn’t want anyone to know exactly what had happened in there and I’d wanted to make the situation as confusing as possible, so I’d mixed enough to fill a twenty-liter jug worth of the appropriate chemicals: a bit of fertilizer, some fuel from the ground vehicles, plus enough of a primary charge to set it off, all with a timed fuse that had more or less burned at a fairly steady rate.
The explosion, even at this distance, wasn’t a “boom.” It was an ear-splitting roar. The entire night sky flared with light and the shock wave picked me up off the ground and then slammed me down again. I could see the sky above me, but the blast wave seemed to have pushed the rain out of the way. I stared upward, feeling dazed and completely out of it. Next to me, Jonna coughed and shouted something at me, but I couldn’t understand her over the ringing in my ears.
After a moment, rain started falling again. The cold rain brought me out of my shock and I levered myself up and to my feet. Jonna, Francis and I stumbled away down the alleyway and behind us, hopefully no one would ever know what had happened.
***
Chapter 21: I Pay My Debts
Ted counted out the last mark onto Francis’s stack and the street gang leader gave a shake of his head. “That,” the leader of the Crooked Daggers gang spoke, “that’s a lot of money. That’s the kind of money that people go looking for after it goes missing.”
“Are you having second thoughts?” I asked. We were holed up in a small room in an abandoned building, not far from the factory. In the distance, I could still hear sirens. I wondered what the Red Badges would make of the mess… and what House Mantis thought.
Francis shot me a look, “Only that I shouldn’t have gone for just forty percent.” He shook his head, “No way I can tell my guys how much we made, or half of them would be into drugs or booze and talking their fat heads off in a week.” He licked his lips and counted off a few thousand Marks, “That’ll do.”
“What if they figure you shorted them?” I asked.
Francis giggled, “They’ll assume I shorted them a bit, I’m the boss, after all.” He shook his head, “none of them would believe I shorted them several hundred thousand Marks, though.”
“Eight hundred and forty five thousand,” Ted spoke up.
“Yeah, smart guy, I can count, too,” Francis snorted. He looked at me, “You and your buddy are heading out?”
“Yeah,” I told him.
“Well…” Francis hesitated. Finally he shrugged, “Good job. If you did decide to stick around, I’d be willing to work with you again. This was… well, it was quite the haul.”
“Thanks… Francis,” I told him with a smile.
The leader of the Crooked Daggers gave me the finger as he turned and walked off.
I looked over at Jonna, who was eyeing her stack of Marks. “Forty percent,” her voice was sour as she spoke, “you didn’t tell me he was getting forty percent.”
“You didn’t ask,” I told her calmly. It had been my plan, and really, I’d taken the most risks, but I was only getting thirty percent. Then again, since there’d been two million one hundred and twenty-five thousand Marks, that was still over six hundred thousand Marks. I was wealthy.
“True enough,” She dropped her share into a satchel and then shot me a look, “I’m going to use this to help a lot of people.”
“Good,” I told her. “I expect you’ll also use it for…. Whatever you’re doing at the Imperial Military Institute.”
“Yeah,” She nodded, “but not all of it. Once things calm down a bit, I’ll try to get Simon to coordinate slipping kids out again.” She gave me a tight grin, “This planet isn’t for everyone.”
I grunted at that, not really sure if I believed her. Even if she was telling the truth, I couldn’t imagine the cynical Simon slipping kids off planet while staying here in the Barrens. Then again, he wasn’t exactly living it up in the Heart. Maybe she knew him better than I did.
I looked down at the stack in front of me. “Well, I think we need to pay Athan.” I glanced at her, “Did you…”
“I already got mine done, in and out, believe it or not,” She snorted, “A bit of quick heal, some medications to prevent tissue rejection, and there I am.” Her expression went serious. “Don’t tell him how much you got there, Will. He’s trustable to a point, but if he even suspects you’ve got that much, you may not wake up.”
I shivered. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it,” Jonna gave me a mock salute. “Now, I’d say see you around, but hopefully we won’t meet again. Instead… good luck, Will Armstrong.” She turned away and then it was Ted, Lokka, and I.
“Boring. Too much talk.” Lokka yawned from where he’d curled up to sleep in the corner.
I looked at Ted, “You okay?” I pulled off the red uniform tunic and pants and reached for the bag of clothes that Jonna had arranged. I pulled on the gray shirt and pants, then the synth-leather jacket and boots. They fit well, but then again, Jonna had my measurements. After a thoughtful moment I picked up Vars’ pistol and tucked that in the inside pocket of the jacket and then put the scrap pistol back down my boot.
“Yeah, I just,” Ted shook his head. “I can’t believe it, you know? We actually did it. You did it. We can go home and…” He broke off, tears filling his eyes. “And Wessek is dead. Really dead.” He wiped at his face. “You have no idea… I still have nightmares about him. Dreams where he’s found us and he’s laughing as Vars…” Ted gave a shuddering breath. “I don’t know if I can thank you enough.”
“Forget about it, Ted,” I told him. I scraped our share of the money into the briefcase. Then, after a moment, I grabbed Vars’ comm unit and threw that in there, too. I didn’t know if I’d need it, but it could be useful.
“I can’t,” Ted looked down at the ground, his face miserable. “Did you know, Wessek put me in with you originally to keep an eye on you? He told me if I did a good job, maybe he’d let me go. I was telling him everything.”
I swallowed, “Well, clearly you didn’t tell him everything, or else we wouldn’t be here.”
“Yeah, I left some things out. I didn’t trust him,” Ted shivered. “When we put together the plan for escape, I kept that a secret. It as the scariest thing I’d ever done.”
I stepped forward and clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s okay, Ted. It all worked out. We’re going home and nothing’s going to stop us at this point.”
***
The next morning, Ted and I met the underground doctor in his waiting room. He’d either decided he needed to beef up his security or something, because now there were four big guards in the small room.
“Change of plans,” Athan said in his booming voice. “There’s only one implant.”
“What?” I demanded angrily. Still, I was careful not to make any threatening move, not with those four looming guards present.
“Something big went down, my suppliers got spooked and went underground just after the first, ah… delivery,” Athan grinned at us. “You can see for yourself.”
He led the way back into his operating room. There was a body lying on the table. A dead body. My eyes went wide and I looked sharply over at Athan. The too-tight skin of his face creased in an ever-s
o-slight smile. “Yes, boy, you don’t think these clean implants grew on trees, did ya? My suppliers finds an appropriate person with the right implants and…” Athan chuckled, “well, they supply me with what I need.”
I wanted to throw up. “I thought…”
“You want a life offworld, you got to pay for a life,” Athan went on. “But the Red Badges are buzzing around like hornets and that spooked my supplier. It may be weeks, maybe a month until I can get another one lined up.” His eyes narrowed, “Some idiots playing around with explosives, from what I heard. Nothing brings the Red Badges down on people like buildings blowing up. Word on the street is some pirate decided to settle some old grudges and things got out of hand.”
I kept control of my expression, but only barely.
“Anyway, one of you gets the implants. The other’s going to have to wait. And there’s a problem with that, since I assume you two want to go home to Century, right?” His gaze darted between us. “Something big happened back at Century. Word just got back here, but every Century flagged ship has either left port or is leaving in the next few days. And Century’s just come down on the Emperor’s black-list of colonies where trade and traffic is prohibited.”
I froze, staring at him, “What, now?”
“Hmm, so you weren’t involved. A pity, I was hoping to learn more. Century’s trade consulate closed last night and the word is that there was a little fire in their building, all their computers and papers went up… what a shame.” Athan waved a hand. “I don’t have the details, but anyone leaving for Century had better be going soon. I can sell you a list of departures, if you’d like. Only a hundred Marks.”
Ted started to open his mouth, but I spoke over him, “We’re kind of tight on money and we still need to book passage, help us out?”