The trip back to the Eclipse had been an exercise in humiliation. To have lost, however unfairly, in front of his men was unacceptable. Then to have to explain his injury to the insufferable Dr. Weigner and the stick-up-his-rectum Captain Stavros? Excruciating.
Those two had relegated Gil to the status of a glorified observer in this whole struggle. That had been unconscionable. So Gil had decided not to conscion it. He was the supreme predator here, and it was time those lower down on the food chain understood what it meant to hunt.
Gil was nothing if not well financed…the haul from the San Rafael had insured that…and with his collection of the finest that technology had to offer, there were few avenues of information he couldn’t access. Working together, Gil and Talon unraveled the labyrinth of shell and dummy corporations masking the current owners of the Moon’s security force.
Stripping away the last of the cobweb of secrecy, Gil felt a feral grin spread over his face. This he could work with.
During his college years, Gil had made many friendships outside his own major, specifically focusing on those in business. His methods were simple. Find people as ruthless as he himself was, then work closely with them. The more ruthless they were, the closer Gil got.
Their methods assured that they would almost certainly be either wildly successful or end up in prison. But even those who managed to land their success coin face-side-up still would get there with more than a few skeletons in the closet. And Gil knew where they all were.
The strings of the new security force on the Moon were held by one of Gil’s “best friends,” a man so ruthless he had tricked a dying Mexican grandmother out of her recipes in order to start his chain of Taisti Tacos stands. That franchise had grown and branched out into one of the largest conglomerates that existed on planet Earth.
And Gil just happened to have the man on speed dial. His current role as a glorified observer was going to last just as long as his next phone call.
* * *
Jarod felt himself revive as hands grabbed him under his arms and hauled him bodily into the ship. It was Buton. Wow. For a scientist, Buton had some pretty awesome upper body strength. He pulled Jarod farther in as Rob slammed the lock closed behind him. Jarod ripped his helmet off and grasped at the canister of oxygen Rob held out to him. He gulped air into his starving lungs, trying not to hyperventilate. It would suck to pass out again now that he was safe inside.
“Remind me to never do that again.” He looked at Buton, who was shaking his head in disbelief.
“I know. Inappropriate use of safety gear.” Jarod looked around the ship. “I can’t believe it. It’s the Eureka.”
Mia entered from the common room, confusion evident in her tone. “How does everyone know the name of my ship?”
“We rode this piece of crap here!” Jarod pulled his shattered helmet off his head.
“Who’s talking nasty about my baby?” A familiar voice spoke from deep within the ship.
Jarod took a few steps back, shocked. A familiar, but now thoroughly bandaged, head poked through the door. The rest of his body followed in short order, a wrench clutched in his hand.
“Simon?”
The little person grinned at Jarod, showing all his teeth. “Wow, Jarod, you look like crap.”
Jarod laughed out loud, grabbing the diminutive pilot and giving him a bear hug. “You should talk.” Jarod held him out at arm’s length. “I thought they were sending you home.”
Simon snorted, his expression turning a bit sour. “Sure. Until they found out I didn’t have insurance. Then they kicked me out. Luckily, I found the Eureka on the scrap heap. Damn fools couldn’t recognize that she only needed a few cosmetic repairs.”
“I could see how they made that mistake.” Rob looked around the hold, eyeing the new dents and dings with obvious suspicion.
Simon raised his wrench in mock menace. Rob ducked in mock fear.
From her vantage point near the window, Cleo cleared her throat. “Uh, guys…Maybe we should think about loading up.”
Jarod went to join her and looked out to see squatters gathering at the top of the hill, pointing at their ship. Jarod whipped around and called out to the entire crew.
“Prep for evac…Now!”
Jarod made his way as fast as he could up to the cockpit, making ready to seat himself in the copilot seat, but Simon herded him over to his own chair.
“My sight’s not that great. I’ll drive shotgun. You pilot.”
“Me?”
Cleo echoed Jarod’s surprise. “Him?”
Rob apparently couldn’t resist putting in his two cents as well. “Have you seen the last three ships he’s flown?”
Ouch. Sure, it was true, but…
“He can handle it.” Well, at least Simon believed in him.
Probably just to round out the crew, Buton chimed in. “The flying, yes. The landing, not so much.”
There it was. The sad thing was, Jarod had nothing to say to disprove any of it. He was pretty sure that he mostly agreed with them.
Simon just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Unfortunately, I’m seeing about four different control panels.”
They all looked at one another for a long moment. Then Rob sighed and plopped down into the navigation station’s chair.
“Let’s do this thing.” He glanced at the instruments in front of him. “All clear. All green lights…Mostly.”
Jarod took a deep breath. “Okay. Rogues, strap in!”
He fired up the engines. Looking at the monitors, Jarod could see that their ship starting up had attracted the squatters like moths to a flame. Ragged men were throwing themselves onto the hull of the Eureka from all sides. The ship was not moving. Jarod looked over at Simon.
“It’s not gonna lift off!”
“Patience, Jarod, patience.”
Jarod growled back, “If one more person says that to me…”
He fought the controls, doing everything he could to get the ship off the ground. The Eureka partially lifted off, but the extra weight from the crazed cultists dragged her back down to the Moon’s surface. Jarod bit off a choice piece of profanity and pushed even harder.
“This was definitely not on the test.”
Off to the side, Simon squinted at the instruments in front of him, turned his head to the side to look out of the corner of his eye, and then began pushing buttons. As far as Jarod could tell, it was totally at random. Simon finished pushing the last button with a flourish.
“That should do it. I think. Hopefully.”
Jarod watched everyone on board give each other significant looks. He then gripped the controls harder, sent up a quick prayer to Shiva or Whomever, and hit the throttle. The prospectors tumbled back to the surface as the ship finally lifted off. The whole encampment they were leaving behind was engulfed in chaos from the pressure of their liftoff and the random falling bodies.
As they shot toward the MoonBase, a frantic voice called out over the radio.
“Eureka, you are not cleared for approach. I repeat, you are—” Simon cut off the call.
“Strange. All we seem to be getting is static.”
Jarod called back to Mia. “How are we doin’?”
“Fine. Plenty of fuel with reserve—”
The sudden rocking of the ship cut off Mia’s words. A small police cruiser ship darted past, the wake creating the turbulence they were feeling.
Jarod swerved to avoid bumping into the offending craft. “Damn! Doesn’t anybody follow a flight path around here…?”
He continued to take evasion action, but the first ship was joined by another, then another, and another. Soon, the skies were swarming with police ships blooming out of the station, heading right for the Eureka.
“We’ll never make the MoonBase.”
“Then choose a new destination!” Simon fired back.
Fantastic suggestion. Only one problem.
“Where?”
Simon simply pointed to the view screen. “How about that big b
lue marble in the sky?”
“The Earth?” Buton sounded confused. Buton never sounded confused.
“Do you see any other option?” The little man raised his eyebrows, his eyes crossing just a little bit.
Jarod held up a hand to stop the conversation, then rethought that idea. He had to use both hands to swerve out of the way of yet another police cruiser.
“Don’t we need to refuel at the MoonBase?”
Simon gave a maniacal grin. “Nah. The Earth’s gravity’ll do the work for us.”
Cleo touched Jarod on the shoulder and spoke quietly. “Don’t bother questioning your karma now, Jarod.”
Mia was not nearly so gentle. She yelled at him.
“Just drive the damn thing!”
That was it. That was the encouragement Jarod needed. He zipped through the web of police cruisers, fighting for every inch of progress.
“Crap!” He narrowly missed running into one of the ships. “Damn!” Even closer. “They really need to write a new test…”
Simon, still squinting at the view screen, urged Jarod, “Pull up.”
Jarod did so, forcing the controls back toward himself, but Simon wasn’t satisfied.
“Harder, steeper.”
The Eureka responded by shaking, her hull feeling as though it would pull apart. Jarod yelled back at the little man.
“Can she take this?”
“We’ll find out, won’t we?” Somehow that response was far from soothing.
The fight was now less with the careening ships and more with the gravitational pull of the Moon. The ship continued to rattle, but the engines proved that they were up to the task. The Eureka broke free of the Moon and pointed her prow toward Earth.
CHAPTER 14
Aboard the Eclipse
March 31, 2049
1813 hours, LST
Gil watched from the Eclipse as the Eureka managed, against all odds, to evade the local law enforcement. His day had officially reached a new low.
Gil had expended so much effort to thread his way into the new security team that was now in force on the Moon. All the mobilization they were seeing right now was due to his work and influence.
And Jarod was still getting away.
The Eureka made another astonishing hairpin turn to avoid one of the police cruisers. That ship should not be able to be doing what it was doing. The thing looked like it was on its last leg, and yet they were performing maneuvers that Gil would have hesitated to try back on the Vanquisher. Once again, Jarod was being reckless.
But what really pissed Gil off was that it appeared to be working.
Another couple of double backs and insane twists later, and Jarod was in the clear, leaving behind all of the Rent-A-Cops and their pathetic efforts. You just couldn’t buy off good help these days. Pathetic.
This had gone beyond ridiculous and into the realm of unbelievable. Someone had to do something. He could feel Jarod and his prize slipping through his net. The loss of money. The loss of prestige. The loss of influence. This was unacceptable.
“You have to do something! He’s getting away!” Gil felt the words burst out of his mouth, aimed at the captain of the ship.
The captain locked eyes with Gil for an interminable moment, staring down his nose at him. How quickly this man had forgotten what Gil had accomplished. If being allied with this moron weren’t vital to getting Jarod and his cargo, Gil would’ve jettisoned this partnership a long time ago. Stavros turned on his heel, dismissing Gil completely.
“Not for long. Plot an intercept course.”
Gil felt the ship hum underneath him, sensing massive stores of strength yet untapped. Stavros might be an idiotic stuffed shirt, but he certainly had some nice toys. One more reason to stick around. This sucker had power.
The Eclipse began to glide out in pursuit of the Eureka, the police forces parting around them like the Red Sea. Except that Gil and his group were the forces of the pharaoh, and this time they were going to win. No one in that ragtag band of sheepherders was going to escape. Gil began to hum a tune to himself, “We Are the Champions.” Quite fitting, really.
In spite of all of the setbacks, Gil’s day was finally starting to look up.
* * *
The myriad of police cruisers behind them, Buton turned back to making sure that their aging ship could make it to the planet’s surface. He calculated, then recalculated, and calculated once again—and each time he came up with the same conclusion. It would take a minor miracle for them to escape with their lives.
Par for the course.
The Eureka passed by the ruined carcass of the destroyed space station, a grim and eerie reminder of what could have happened. Or, as Buton was beginning to fear, a gruesome prophecy of what awaited them planetside. The thread that held them on this side of life was thin and easily broken.
The ship groaned as Jarod course-corrected. Ah, yes…one additional consideration. The thread was also very old, had crashed multiple times, and was currently held together by duct tape and the collective will of the crew. Buton glanced toward the navigation center’s direction. Rob was currently flipping through the CableNet programming, checking out what was happening back on their home planet.
Buton was at the point of calling Rob away from his surfing to help out with some possible repairs when the young man stopped on a specific channel and called out to his uncle.
“Hey, Jarod, take a look…!”
The newscaster was one who they were all familiar with. A smug-looking Brandi Broadhope had apparently graduated from the fluff pieces to the more serious news. She spoke to the camera with a newfound…and rather ill fitting…sense of gravitas. “They call themselves Rogues Incorporated. Word from the Lunar News Service is that this band of pirates has escaped with a cache of Star Diamonds. Though other reports say it is one huge diamond…a veritable mother lode.”
Rob flipped to another feed, where another equally self-satisfied reporter spoke to the camera. Buton wondered for a moment if arrogance were perhaps a prerequisite for correspondents. That and perfect teeth.
This newscaster painted the Rogues with an even dirtier brush. “These internationally infamous ‘treasure seekers’ were previously detained by the Bahamian government for their looting of what officials there call a ‘historically significant site.’ No word yet on whether or not the Star Diamonds in their possession were obtained through theft or extortion. The Rogues are wanted for questioning by the U.S. Government.”
Jarod yelled at the screen. “How’d they find out?”
“Please. We weren’t exactly subtle about our departure.” Cleo’s tone was dry enough to rival the Sahara.
The Eureka listed to the port side suddenly as a sleek and muscular shuttle came within feet of ramming into them. Proximity Klaxons blared and lights lit up the nav board. Their radio crackled to life. “This is the Eclipse. You are under arrest. Release your guidance control, and we will guide your descent and land you at Edwards Air Force Base.”
The signal volume seemed unnaturally boosted, the voice echoing through the hold. It gave the voice an authority well beyond that of its unaided power. The reverberating voice was what Buton imagined Shiva might sound like, if Shiva were aboard some government-owned spaceship flying through the void of space.
Jarod waved his hand over the controls of the communication band, cutting off the signal and the lingering echoes. He muttered back at the speakers.
“The hell you will.” He pivoted in his seat, waving the crew together for an impromptu huddle. He spat out his suspicions with no preamble.
“Something’s up here. What’s their angle?”
“I concur. For a government vessel to act in this way is irrational without some external motivator. There are too many opportunities for observers to document the indiscretion,” Buton said, adding his concern to Jarod’s.
“Exactly! It doesn’t make sense. Why does the government want us?”
Rob, who was still keeping an eye on th
e news feed, replied by pointing once more at the screen. “Look!”
A grainy and obviously homemade video played out with the newscaster’s voice overlapping the footage. The video depicted a strange rainbow-colored laser bursting out of a mountainside and cutting through a tree on the other side of a parking lot.
“This just in. Amateur footage of a super-laser fueled by star diamonds was released to the media. Word from LNS is that Rogues Incorporated may actually be a terrorist group—”
Buton winced at the label of “terrorist.” His people had spent way too many decades combating that particular appellation. At least they now knew why the government was harassing them. Jarod barked over the top of the feed.
“Turn that garbage off!” He turned to Buton. “Damn it all to hell! Can they actually build a weapon like that from Star Diamonds?”
The ship rocked as the Eclipse let off a warning shot across their bow.
Jarod yelled at the ceiling. “Do you know how tired I am of people shooting at us?”
Buton glanced down at the instruments to verify that they had not taken any damage. With the Eureka in its current state of disrepair, it was hard to tell for certain, but they seemed to have avoided anything overt. He switched over to his laptop to do some calculations on the diamond laser.
Simon grabbed Jarod by the arm. “I’d quit griping and try some evasive maneuvers.”
While Jarod did his best with that directive, the ship shaking and screeching her protests, Buton did what he could to keep typing.
After several more near misses and a bruised elbow from bumping into the hull, Buton had some answers. He did not like any of them. He called up to Jarod.
“Extrapolating from the broadcast and knowing the largest crystals so far discovered was 8.3 karats, a crystal as large as ours could produce a beam so powerful…” Buton found he could not continue speaking past the obstruction in his throat.
A moment later, Jarod turned back, aware that Buton was not going to continue on his own.
“Buton?” The question was clear in his voice.
Buton responded as best he could, clearing his throat to get past the emotion.
“Equipped on a war satellite, our crystal could vaporize an entire country.”
Got Thrills? A Boxed Set (A McCray Collection) Page 45