by R. K. Thorne
“You’re enjoying this.”
“I am, in fact. I like seeing you squirm. I could see a whole lot more of it. But if you want that ident, turn over to my custody a certain member of your team.”
She frowned. “Who?”
“Did you know Dr. Arakovic is looking for a certain Kael Sidassian?”
Kael shot up in his seat. What the…
Ostrov continued. “He bears a striking resemblance to your lieutenant. Asidian, was it? Not very creative.” He shook his head with a snakelike smile.
“You sniveling little—” She started from her seat, as if to attack the wall display.
“Dr. Arakovic has posted a bounty on him, a very high one in fact. Not even yours is higher.” He grinned wide now, baring his teeth.
“Why?” she demanded.
That made no sense. Why would Arakovic even know who he was, let alone want him? And more than Ellen? Who would have guessed she wanted Ellen at all? Where were these bounties posted? By the seven suns, maybe the room was spinning now.
Ostrov steepled his fingers. “I don’t presume to ask the good doctor questions.”
“She’s anything but good.”
“Get me the Theroki, and I’ll get you Arakovic.”
She cut the air like a knife with one hand. “No deal.”
“Now don’t be—”
“Not happening.” She slammed a palm onto the desk and cut the connection.
Kael stared at her, wide-eyed from his seat. She was slumped onto flat palms on the tabletop, tension draining out of her. He couldn’t remember ever seeing her like that. So… defeated.
“What if we—”
“No,” she snapped.
“But if he has the information—” He started to wave a hand, then grunted when pain kicked in under the medkit and the painkillers. Jenny had said he’d lost a lot of blood. Clearly he should lie back down. But he couldn’t, not now.
Ellen turned to face him, eyes determined. “We will find another way to Arakovic.”
“He knows.” He jabbed a finger at the wall display. “You’ve never been this close.”
“I know.” She shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose.
“This might be your chance. We should try to bargain with him. Maybe we can set a trap, or I can fight my way out, or—”
“No.”
Something about the word stopped him short. There was chaos, desperation in it, not her usual control. Her eyes had that same wild, helpless look they’d had just last night, when he’d come back from Josana’s. A conversation they hadn’t finished, he realized suddenly.
“She already took too much from me. I won’t give her you.” Her words rang as final as the closing of a colony ship.
He could only stare as she marched away from him, out the door.
Ellen headed straight from Kael to the Persads, stabbing the door chime on Chayana’s lab door with entirely too much force. The door slid open.
“Yes, Ellen?”
Dr. Persad was hunched over her son’s arm as he reclined in her fancy chair, only now his arm was propped up. Huh, the arms adjusted, go figure. She looked near to fixing the damage he’d done with his makeshift arm port.
“How are you holding up, Vivaan?” She should make conversation. It was what normal people who weren’t seething with desire for revenge did.
He smiled weakly. “Mother is fixing up all the damage I did.”
“I promised him he could have a real port, when this has settled down and it’s safe to do the operation.” Chayana spoke without looking up.
“Good to hear you’re hanging in there. I’m sorry to rush you, but Sergeant Morales should be ready soon to leave for our ship. Have you made your decision yet?”
Now Chayana did straighten and looked to her son, as if it was his ultimate decision. Perhaps her mind had already been made up. Vivaan took a deep breath, his eyes trained on his mother’s. He didn’t look afraid exactly, just nervous, like someone born planetside taking their first step onto a space ship. Belatedly, she wondered if that was exactly what it was. Capital seemed so metropolitan, it hadn’t occurred to her that neither of them might have ever been in space. Or even have much idea what the life would be like.
She wasn’t explaining it to them now, so hopefully they’d done their research.
Vivaan finally turned to meet Ellen’s gaze. “We will do it. We have packed. What do you need us to do?”
“Excellent. I’m glad to hear it. I’ll send Sergeant Morales to arrange things. You can go with her. I’ll try one more time to get in touch with Ms. Kentt this afternoon. She hasn’t returned my three previous calls. If I can’t, we’ll continue to try to contact her from off planet. I am confident you’ll be safer there. And free to continue your work.”
Chayana nodded. Vivaan glanced at the floor.
“Both of your work,” Ellen added. “There’s no reason to give up the trail on those girls either. We’ll continue to do what we can.”
Faint surprise in his eyes, Vivaan nodded. Ellen had a suspicion that once they were acclimated to the ship and its real mission, Vivaan would find a lot more to challenge him than his current quest. Aside from being male and having almost zero combat skills, he was a pretty good fit for the ship. Could have been worse.
She left them, dropped her instructions with Nova, and gave the team one final check. If anyone could sneak a living man in a box off Capital, it was these Nova and Mo. As she headed back to the study to check on Kael, she paused in the wrecked living room.
No security had ever come to inquire. Glass still sprinkled the floor. The ledge was a fragging death trap. At the very least, someone should put up some boards or something.
But no. They’d leave instead.
First the Persads with Nova and Mo. And then, with luck, the last four of them, with a few more answers to questions in their pockets.
She slowed to a stop near the overturned armchair Jenny had favored. Sunlight filled the room as the cold air danced around her, and a strange sense of time swept her, of knowing the past. And also the future.
There had been moments when the chase after Arakovic had seemed distant, perhaps bordering on a ridiculous obsession. Recently, there’d been times when her quest had felt closer. More real. But nothing had felt quite as close as this, not since she’d deserted, anyway.
That woman had attacked her closest friends. Her trusted colleagues. Her identity. Her very sanity. She had loved her life, then, in the Union. She couldn’t have known this one would have been better. She wouldn’t have answered Doug’s call if it had come then.
But one betrayal had destroyed everything. A crash, an operation, and nothing was the same. It hadn’t collapsed in one fell swoop, but over time. Until she walked a blade’s edge. And she hadn’t successfully walked it. She’d faltered, and fallen.
And Dremer and Doug had caught her.
At times she wondered if she should give up this chase, let the past go. She did much more for people now than pursuing Arakovic could do alone. Intellectually, she knew revenge was often a terrible idea that only extended one’s trauma. Knowing that didn’t change anything. What new plots the doctor could be up to niggled at her, and that idea had drawn her on, the hope of preventing what had happened to her from happening to someone else.
And these days, she knew. It was definitely still happening. It wasn’t just paranoia. Arakovic was out there—hiring Enhancer labs, enchanting young telepaths, hijacking Theroki ships. Making mindless zombie minions somehow? Certainly worse things they hadn’t discovered.
To what end, Ellen could only guess.
And now her sights were on Kael.
Somehow, in spite of Ellen’s best efforts to save him and Doug’s best efforts to hide him, Arakovic had taken an interest in Kael, of all the people in all the stars.
And now this quest felt very personal and very close indeed.
The woman had to be stopped. And to do it, Ellen would start with learning how to find her.
<
br /> She turned away from the window and the sparkling sea and headed to put on her armor.
To Jenny’s surprise, it wasn’t until the flyer faltered and bumped into the flyer beside it, scraping a dent into the next one six inches wide, that Adan’s good humor abruptly faded. She’d been trying to ruminate on what the heck had gotten into him but hadn’t come up with any theories before the collision.
Jenny swore. “Stupid things. Now we have to wait for inspectors to check us all over and—”
He froze.
She saw the change in him, the sudden fear. “What? What is it?”
“There was something I meant to give back to Josana. And then I got distracted by something important and forgot.”
“So?” Jenny shrugged. “Ship it to her.”
He shook his head. “Not this.”
The blare of the inspector siren was already approaching as a chill shot through her. “Oh my God, it’s something illegal isn’t it?”
He nodded. “Apparently she’s more chem dealer than medical student.”
Jenny’s eyes widened in panic. “Chems? Where is it? Can we ditch—” She stopped short as she glanced back over her shoulder. The inspector flyer was settling at ground level behind them.
He popped open the leg panel and pulled out the packet.
“God, that’s like three thousand credits right there!” Where was Sarofalonon-whatever from the Daily Nonsense channel now? He’d have a field day when he got wind of this.
“Maybe we can say it was already in here. It’s a public flyer, right?”
She shook her head and pointed at the ceiling. “There’s cams. Plus your prints might be on it.”
His turn to swear.
“Why are you carrying it around, damn it?” Her anguish shook her voice.
“Because I was trying to get rid of it!”
She bit back any further words. None of her current thoughts would be helpful, especially not the rage cuddling in her gut. She scanned the flyer, the street around them—anything. There had to be some way out of this. “If you get caught with that…”
His own gaze flicked to the swirling lights behind them.
An idea finally came to her. The only one she had. A way out, although not a great one. Adan wouldn’t die in prison, at least. She, on the other hand… she pushed the thoughts aside. She had family and colleagues on Capital. More options than he ever would. She was doing this.
Whether he liked it or not.
She caught his eyes with one long, hard look, raising a hand to his cheek for a moment. His eyes frowned at her, searching, but he didn’t back away.
He hadn’t shooed her away last night either.
On impulse, she leaned forward and kissed him, one long hard press of her lips against his mouth, fingers curling around his neck. Might as well, while she still had the chance.
And while he was still frozen in surprise, she snatched the packet from his fingers, unlatched the flyer door, and ran.
She sprinted away and dove into the nearest alley even as shouts went up behind her. She slammed the helmet up. Too bad she hadn’t bought those cloakers already. She’d have to try to get away the old-fashioned way. She swerved and took off down the next block, tossing the drug in a sewer drain. It wouldn’t help; they’d find it or the recording of her ditching it.
She headed for the largest crowd she could find. One foot in front of the other, hopefully faster than the bad guys.
Except this time, she was the bad guy.
“What the—” Adan stared at the yawning car door. “Jenny!”
“Xi—this is mission imperative,” Jenny said over his suit’s comm, barely panting in spite of her mad sprint. “Raise his helmet and lock him in that suit.”
“What?” The stunned exclamation was all he could manage. He flinched as the helmet began rising around him. “Jenny, what’s going on?”
“You’re Jenny now, Adan. Xi, I’ve switched the idents. I have one of my older ones.”
“But that one is not for a Capital citizen,” Xi objected.
“An inner world will get me better than outsystem will get him. Listen—take over and talk him out of this, and then Adan, you get back to Kael and Ryu and tell them what happened.”
“Jenny, what are you doing?”
“Saving your ass.”
“I don’t need my ass saved!”
“Time to admit you fragging do. We all need saving sometimes. You’re not special.”
He opened his mouth to disagree, but Xi cut in. “Respectfully, I must agree with Corporal Utlis. Your ass is most certainly in need of saving at present, as well as all of your other body parts.”
“Jenny!” he growled.
Even as he did, Xi was commandeering his suit, rolling down the window, answering politely to the officer. His scream was trapped in the suit.
He punched out at the armor pointlessly, but he couldn’t help it. It was just him and his growl of rage. He should have flushed the stupid drug. He should have never taken it. He should’ve seen Josana for who she truly was to begin with.
This was all his fault.
“I would have liked to have known you better, my friend.” Jenny’s soft words came back to him, broken a bit by exertion and interference, but he heard them loud and clear.
“Don’t do this.”
She didn’t respond.
He’d wanted to pound his fists, and he did as much as he could against the armor, but it wasn’t any relief. Xi held him tight. Talking him out of trouble. Denying he knew the figure who had jumped from his flyer. Of course those cameras would prove him a liar, but they had to suspect something to check. A gamble.
He growled, but they showed no sign of hearing him. The other inspectors had raced after Jenny. He stared after her, down the alley, until they’d all vanished from sight. And then he stared some more.
His own officer nodded, satisfied by Xi’s carefully calculated responses. Remarkably, he was leaving. Adan could hardly believe she’d pulled it off. Xi rolled up the window.
“I apologize, Adan, but she is right about the mission. Shall I direct your flyer back to the commander’s location or the ship?”
“The ship, so I can unplug you,” he grunted.
“She is trying to keep you from dying in prison. I thought her sacrifice rather noble.”
“But what about her?” he snapped.
“I don’t know. I only know her chances of ever seeing the stars again are far better than yours.”
Regaining control of his gloves, he tightened his grip on the emergency steering column.
“Better chances, huh? Well, I make my own luck.”
“It is possible to manufacture such an amorphous thing as luck?”
He began directing the flyer to the docks. “Not really. But that doesn’t stop me from trying. I’m coming back to the ship. I need a few things. Find out where they are taking her.”
“That would require hacking into aerial surveillance, possibly breaching their government systems and—”
“You think I don’t know that?” He slammed hands against the wheel.
Xi was silent.
“I can’t let her suffer because of me. I have to make this right. Find out where they take her for me, Xi. Please?”
Another long pause stretched out before she spoke. “Drone deployed. Breach commencing.”
He cheered, actually cheered. “You’re a queen, Xi. A lifesaver.”
“What even are laws anyway?” she said mildly.
He chuckled. “Was that a joke?”
“Perhaps.”
Grinning, he grabbed the controls, ignoring the auto, and took off for the ship. He needed to get a few things, and then there was something he needed to do.
Chapter Thirteen
Ellen slammed her palm into the reader outside Ostrov’s door. She took a step away, forced a deep breath, and laid a hand as casually as possible on the multi hanging seemingly loosely at her side.
She’d s
pent the last hour going over plans and options in her head, trying to talk herself out of this, and utterly ignoring Xi’s attempts to talk her out of this. Xi was continuing to make attempts via the mind-network connection inside her suit.
Commander, I believe as you saw the other night, Dr. Ostrov is employing some technology to block your signal. I’ll no longer be able to help you once you venture inside.
Understood, Xi. But I have to do this. At this rate, he wasn’t going to answer the door anyway. And she was going to have to start getting creative.
She’d analyzed a short list of options from a dozen different angles. Get Adan to hack into Ostrov’s accounts. Climb through the ductwork. Dress up as a delivery service and jump him.
Ultimately, for better or worse, she’d settled on the direct route. Point a gun at him and make demands.
After what seemed like an eternity, the door slid open to reveal Ostrov, one hand over the palm reader, the other propped on his hip, long coat and shirt unbuttoned roguishly. One eyebrow was quirked at her. “Yes?”
“Don’t you ever go to work?”
“If I did, I wouldn’t be answering your call at my door, so I don’t see how you can complain at the moment.”
“We need to talk.” She stepped inside, crowding him, and he obliged by backing away a few steps.
“I don’t see about what. You heard my terms.”
“There’s got to be something else you want.”
“Alas, while I can think of a thing or two, I’m fairly certain you won’t give me those either.”
“Name it.”
“Your virginity.” He laughed darkly.
She brought the multi to bear between them. “I’m not a virgin,” she lied through clenched teeth. “And the other thing?”
“Well, your whole ship has a decent bounty on it as well, but presumably that’d contain both you and your lover, so I assume that’s out.”
“He’s not my lover.”
He scoffed. “You may not bluff, but you don’t lie well. Not a virgin, and no lovers? A sad state for your bed.”
“My bed is for sleeping. Listen, Ostrov. I want the name of the ship. Don’t make me get violent.”