“You’re better than they are,” Terry said.
“How do you know?”
“Because if you go in there thinking anything different, you’ve already lost. No fight is easy until it’s over. Gotta run. Get my suit ready!” Terry’s screen went dark as he ran after his words. The War Axe was getting hammered. Even if they destroyed the enemy, would they be in any shape to help the Magistrate enforce the law?
“If we die,” Red started slowly, “it’ll be inside the atmosphere. Our fireball will be glorious.”
“Is that empathy, or your idea of a motivational speech? Today is a great day to die!”
“No, it isn’t.”
“But that’s... Never mind.” Rivka shook her head as she continued to look at the blank screen. “Chaz, I need you and Erasmus to coordinate your efforts. Destroy the space-based array, which I assume they have because they must. And then we’re going to the planet’s surface. We need some kind of leverage so that Mandel is forced to meet with me.”
“Lie,” Red suggested.
“Explain.”
“Tell him that you are holding the evidence in a safe place, to be transmitted in case anything happens to you.”
“I like it. Why would that be a lie?”
“Are you stoned? Send the evidence now! You’ve made your case. All you have to do is tie the bow on the package. My job is to keep you alive. On a personal note, you are stretching the limits of me being able to do my job.”
“You have a point, Red. You don’t have to go with me to see Oscura Nefas Mandel. This is my responsibility. I don’t want your death on my shoulders.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Red demanded, pounding on the back of the chair with a massive fist. He held his railgun up, which emphasized his angry scowl.
“What do you mean by that?” Rivka glowered back.
“Besides it being my job, do you think you haven’t earned my loyalty? You know that I’m a wanted man—wanted because I wouldn’t take a bullet for my last two scumbag employers. I broke their contracts. They were criminals, and although I could turn a blind eye to some of their dealings, I wouldn’t let them buy my soul. I would take a bullet for you, Rivka, because you’ve earned it, not because Grainger would kick my ass or I wouldn’t get paid. I swear that I will keep you alive or die trying. And now that I have a girlfriend, I’d like to avoid that ‘die trying’ part.”
“I didn’t know you were wanted, but I suspect Grainger does.” Red nodded. “Thanks. For the record, I’m not a big fan of the dying part either. Let’s try your leverage while seeing how Ankh and Erasmus can spoof Mandel and his cronies into thinking that they need more time.”
“What’s your plan, Magistrate? Are you going to execute them on sight?” Red asked.
“I need to touch them while they’re still alive, just to make sure we find what they’re hiding. This is a hydra. Seven heads that we need to cut off, and if we don’t get them at the same time, they’ll grow back, bigger and badder than before.”
“If you need me to blow shit up, I’d like to see what the railgun can do on full auto if there’s an opportunity.”
“Before the day is out, I think we’ll be tired of all the opportunities we’re going to have.”
“I’m not sure how I should feel about that, besides hungry. I’d suggest we take a picnic lunch, but that space in my pack is reserved for extra ammo. I can miss a meal, but not a reload.” Red left the bridge and turned into the rec room. “Ankh, what other food programs did you install? I’ve had my fill of spaghetti bars for a while.”
Wearing his usual blank expression, Ankh faced Red. “You people eat enough to feed an entire Crenellian city.”
Red smiled. “I feel pride swelling in my breast.”
Rivka shrugged, a half-smile on her face. “We burn a lot of calories. I think it’s the running.”
“So, you think I’m your girlfriend, do you?” Lindy questioned. She leaned against the wall of the corridor to the berthing area, her arms crossed. Lauton remained behind her, watching with interest as she’d had almost no dealings with males.
“You’re my girlfriend,” Jay offered as she walked past.
“You got that right, girlfriend,” Lindy shot back.
Red turned to Rivka, his face pleading. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
Rivka started to laugh before biting her lip. Lindy winked.
“I guess I can give my notice, but you know what that means.”
Red was all smiles once again. “That you’re my girlfriend?”
“That’s just a name, you big goon. It means you won’t get special treatment at the AGB restaurant.”
“Oh.” Red dragged the word out. He looked at Rivka and mouthed the word, ‘Girlfriend.’ Rivka nodded, and Red was all smiles again.
“I swear,” Rivka said, “men are such babies.”
“Hey!”
“You outnumber us, remember? You, Hamlet, Chaz, Ankh, and Erasmus. That’s a Crenellian, a cat, and two AIs. All that testosterone is wearing us poor girls down.”
Ankh pointed to the food processor as a bar popped into the tray. Red took a tentative bite. “Peanut butter and jelly!” he exclaimed. Lindy still had her arms crossed. Red swallowed before continuing. “I find myself in a strange position where no matter how much weaponry I have, I am in a battle that I cannot win. I defer and surrender.” He bowed until his head was even with the table. He stood up and took another big bite, talking to the dispenser as he chewed. “Three more of those, please.”
“I don’t know why you see it as a battle when it’s more of a partnership. Don’t you think, girlfriend?” Lindy asked.
“I do think that, girlfriend.”
Red started to look uncomfortable again. Lindy cornered him in the galley. She tried to wrap her arms around his neck, but with his combat gear on she couldn’t get close enough. She pulled his face down to hers. “You may be a big goon, but you’re my big goon. Don’t you dare die on me.” She kissed him in a way that promised much more.
As long as he returned to the ship when it was over.
“Magistrate?” he wondered.
“Yeah. It’s about that time, isn’t it?” Rivka got Ankh’s attention.
“Yes, yes. We will Gate in exactly two minutes and twelve seconds. It could be a very rough ride, and everything will happen quickly between our arrival and touchdown. You should strap yourselves in,” Ankh recommended.
The crew took their seats and tightened their belts. Lauton took an empty seat and did as the others did. Hamlet appeared and jumped into Jay’s lap. She wrapped protective arms around the cat. Red’s lip twitched.
“We won’t get a cat,” Lindy stated.
“Or a dog,” Red added.
“I did like the wombat, though. She was big and soft and cuddly, like someone else I know.”
“You can’t mean me. I’m not sure I’ve ever been called soft.”
“One minute,” Erasmus announced.
Rivka buckled into the captain’s chair on the bridge. “Bring up the view outside the ship. All angles, please. Put the tactical situation on the left screen.”
The main screen showed the vast emptiness of space. The right side view showed the darkness of a dead moon wearing the aura of the sun that shone behind it. The left side showed the planet, a moon, and Peacekeeper. No other objects warranted space on the screen.
“Ten seconds,” Erasmus reported and started the countdown. Rivka’s muscles tightened, even though she knew going through the Gate would be painless. The main screen showed the circle of light that appeared when the Gate engine activated. The main engines engaged to drive the ship through at a higher rate of speed than normal.
Peacekeeper emerged on the other side, firing before clearing the event horizon. The systems continued firing even after a satellite in the distance came apart. The ship targeted the biggest pieces, blowing them to near-vapor. The ship dove radically and started to heat up with reentry. The flames o
f friction shrouded the shields, making the corvette a massive fireball in a steep descent toward the planet’s surface.
The ship was buffeted, and it jerked as it reacted to the turbulence outside. When the corvette’s flight smoothed, Rivka unbuckled and headed for the exit. Red was one step behind her, having had to come from the rec room. He pushed past to be in front of the door, per their standard operating procedure.
They were making it up as they went.
“Chaz, what does tactical show? How many ships in orbit?”
“None, Magistrate. The planet appears to have been abandoned.”
“Say what?” Rivka was outraged. Her ploy had failed.
“Instructions?” Red asked.
“Stay the course. I need to see for myself.” Rivka clenched her jaw and growled. “No ships on the surface either?”
“There is one ship, Magistrate.”
“Operational?”
“Yes.”
“That means there is someone we can talk to.” A smile crept slowly across her face. It wasn’t a pleasant look. Red was happy not to be on the receiving end of what she had in mind for whoever they came across.
“Abandoned. A ploy, maybe?” Red suggested.
“If we treat it as hostile and well-populated, we’ll be no worse for the wear. The alternative could get us killed.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
With a final maneuver, the ship settled to the ground.
“Ready?” the big man asked.
“I expect we’ll be running?”
“You would be right.”
“I hate running.”
“Me, too.” Red slapped the button, raised his railgun, and ran out while the stairs were still descending. He jumped to the ground and continued directly for the only building in the area. Rivka hurried to catch up. She didn’t sense anyone or anything. It seemed that even with her unpredictability, they’d guessed her move.
She slowed when Red reached the front entrance and yanked the door open. He waved impatiently at her. She walked up the stairs to the building. He scanned the inside before tearing through the doorway and diving to the side.
“Clear,” he reported. Rivka walked in like she owned the place. It looked more like a home than a workplace. She continued through the well-appointed entry, with its couches and chairs. There was a wet bar on one side and a fireplace on the other.
“What the hell is this?” Rivka asked.
Red kept his thoughts to himself. His eyes danced across the nooks and crannies of the great room, identifying the numerous exits and tagging them for movement. He couldn’t shoot first since Rivka wanted live bodies to interrogate. But there was nothing alive.
“Hello?” Rivka ventured. It didn’t echo because of wall hangings and soft cushions on the seats. “Interesting. What do you say we start at the top and work our way down?”
Red nodded and led the way up a wide curving stairway. The building was massive, but only two stories were aboveground. Red jogged down a long corridor with Rivka trotting after him. When he reached the end, he picked a door at random and checked to see if it was unlocked. The handle turned, and the door opened soundlessly into a bedroom with an attached bath, both empty.
“This place is giving me the creeps,” Red grumbled.
“I thought it was just me,” Rivka admitted. Despite Red’s objections, they opened doors simultaneously on opposite sides of the corridor. Bedrooms, a workout room, a dining room, and when Rivka opened the door to a modern office, she yelled for Red. He sprinted to her as if she were under attack. She shrugged and threw the door open.
Red raised his railgun and entered, the barrel going where his eyes went. He swung the weapon viciously as he searched the room. Rivka sat at the first desk and tried to access the computer. Even with the power on, the system was dead. “I think they trashed their computers and bailed. We may have won the battle, but we haven’t won the war.”
“Something isn’t right. Even if they had a week or two heads-up, they still couldn’t have evacuated this place while also scrubbing it of any evidence. Watch the door,” Red told her as he lifted the computer box to the desktop. He removed a small toolset from one of his pouches and started taking the case off. Inside was a dusty circuit board that may never have run a computer. “It’s a fake.”
“Which means a trap.” Rivka ran out the door and skipped the other rooms lining the corridor on her way to the stairs. Red ran, but couldn’t catch her.
Chapter Seventeen
Rivka hit the bottom floor, went to the first door she found, and opened it to find more of the same.
“It’s all a facade,” she said over her shoulder. Red waited in the doorway, breathing heavily and studying the room. Together, they checked the next room and the next. Rivka finally removed her datapad to contact the ship. “Do the ship’s sensors show anything?” she asked.
Chaz replied, “Infrared shows that you are the only warm-blooded creatures in the aboveground portion of the structure.”
“There are signatures below ground?”
“The sensors can’t penetrate the barrier.”
Rivka slapped her forehead. “Red, make sure that when we get home, we get the full military upgrade. The team needs to have instantaneous communication at all times.”
“That doesn’t sound like the lawyer I met not so long ago.”
Rivka hung her head. “It would be nice if that lawyer could do her thing, but with criminals double-glazing that shit, I’m not left with much of a choice.”
“’Double-glazing?’” Red asked, never looking at Rivka as he watched for enemies to appear from everywhere and nowhere.
“Gloss over, blow off, ignore. You know, double-glaze, like my eyes after watching some of Jay’s movies.”
“I’d rather watch paint dry,” Red admitted. “So there’s a basement that’s shielded. All of this is eyewash. Down there is the real operation, and without comm, they may be a little bit torqued.”
“I think the way down is probably right there,” Rivka pointed to a double door at the side of the staircase.
“Shall we try it?” Red asked. Rivka shook her head and pointed to Red’s railgun.
“When you need it open on the first pull, you don’t fuck around with doorknobs.”
Red stepped to the side. “Fire in the hole,” he said softly before spinning the railgun through its automatic setting. The hypervelocity darts screamed into a heavily armored interior wall, but the darts were made of denser material and sent a spray of molten metal in all directions. Red traced a line around the door and kept firing until a section of the wall fell in, revealing an opening.
He stopped firing. Rivka kept her neutron-pulse weapon trained on the opening. It was set at two. She didn’t want to kill anyone until she interrogated them using her gift.
Red approached the opening, keeping his railgun at the ready. The steps led down. Rivka opened her pad. “Can you see down below now?”
“It’s like looking through a straw. We don’t see anything besides the hole you cut through the shield.”
“The shield is nothing more than thick metal.”
“That is enough to block the infrared sensors,” Chaz replied. “But there is also some kind of electronic shielding.”
“But the way down the stairs is open?”
“Yes.”
“Smell like a trap?” Rivka asked, at Red’s facial expression. He removed a grenade and waved it. “I would like to rescind my previous order regarding doing all we can to take them alive. Fuck these guys.”
She walked to the opening, dialed her neutron pulse weapon to eleven, and activated it as she waved it back and forth. “You have been judged!” she yelled.
“What if there were innocents down there?” Red asked.
“If they are down there, they aren’t innocent.” She tipped her chin toward the grenade.
“Fire in the hole,” he whispered, pulling the pin and tossing the weapon down the stairs. They hear
d it bounce four times before it exploded. While the explosion was still echoing in their heads, Red threw the second grenade with as much velocity as he could generate. The next explosion came from much deeper.
He rushed into the opening and headed down the stairs, once again looking over the barrel of his weapon while he descended. The steps were wide and would have been well lit if the blast hadn’t destroyed numerous sconces along the walls. Red didn’t care about aesthetics. His eyes were on the target at the bottom—a landing that looked like it led into the complex. There was a sealed door.
“Motherfuckers.” Red took aim at the jamb and unleashed a torrent of hypersonic darts. Rivka barely got her hands over her ears in time. Red shook his head to clear the ringing while the nanocytes in his body went to work repairing the damage.
He eased down the last of the stairs, pulled a grenade, and kicked the door in.
“Wait!” came a feminine voice from the other side.
Red hesitated. He had already pulled the pin and was holding the grenade. “Come out with your hands up!” Rivka shouted. Red shook his head vigorously. He was too close to the door. Rivka was a few steps behind and above him. A face appeared immediately in front of the railgun.
“Dammit, lady! That’s a great way to get yourself shot.”
“Stop right there,” Rivka ordered. “Where’s Nefas?”
“Who?”
Rivka didn’t see a weapon, so she lunged down the stairs and grabbed for the female’s arm, but she slapped something on Red’s railgun and disappeared through the door. He sent the weapon spinning through after her. It was keyed to handprints so no one could use it beside him and Rivka. He tossed the grenade after the railgun, making sure to spin it so no one could grab it and throw it back.
After it exploded Red rushed through the door, dodging to the side once through. Rivka leaned around the destroyed jamb, ready to fire her neutron-pulse weapon. She saw a movement and fired. The female screamed in agony, stood straight up, bucked twice, and flopped over a couch onto the floor.
Judge, Jury, & Executioner Boxed Set Page 35