“Done,” I said, and returned the canteen... which was exactly when everything that had gone down, came right back up.
I looked for the bucket, but the kitchenhand had already taken it away. Well, sheeit. Wasn’t he just going to be ten times so impressed with me? Cherry Red stains like a bitch.
Doc didn’t wait for me to recover. He pulled that derm from whichever coat pocket he’d been hiding it in, and got me good and fast. Right then, I was too busy throwing up to care. I figured if I saw a glass of Cherry anything this side of the next decade, it would be ten decades way too soon.
“You done?” Mack asked, when I’d finally stopped, and was trying to catch my breath.
“Sure,” I said, but I stayed right where I was, until someone passed me a mug of water.
“Try and keep it down,” Doc said, and I nodded.
The water settled my stomach enough for me to get to my feet, without losing anything more. I wiped my mouth, and looked at Mack.
“What next?” I asked.
“You stick with Doc in the med bay, while we get under way. Tens should be able to tell you if Doc’s gunk worked, come morning.”
I nodded, and watched as Mack headed for the door, Tens falling into step behind him. Doc stood up, and came alongside me.
“You need a san unit,” he said, and I wanted to ask him whose fault that was, but didn’t feel up to an argument he’d win hands down.
“Just show me which one’s mine,” I said.
An hour later, I settled into a med-bay bed and closed my eyes. Stars only knew how I was going to feel in the morning, but I wasn’t betting on good. It didn’t help, when Doc came in an hour later, and ran a hand scan over my head, and then over the rest of me.
“What was that for?”
“Seein’ if you’re goin’ to explode,” he said, but he didn’t explain, and he was grinning as he left.
“Sonuvabitch,” I managed, as the door closed behind him, but I didn’t bother chasing after him and demanding answers; I figured I’d find out more than I needed, when I woke up in the morning.
I was right, again, but I didn’t feel like I’d won a prize. I was facing down Delight, Mack, Doc and Tens, and none of us were happy: me because I wanted to say ‘no’, and knew I couldn’t; Doc, because I was being uncooperative; Tens and Delight, because Mack said it was my decision, and they had to wait for me to make it; and Mack, because he knew I was stalling, and we really didn’t have the time.
Finally, I just leant my head back on the wall, and rolled my eyes at the ceiling.
“Sure,” I said. “Go for it.”
And I closed my eyes.
Because I didn’t want to see this coming, and I didn’t want to run, and I knew my body wouldn’t want to stay. So, I sat, and I kept my head tilted back and my eyes closed, and I tried to not think about what was about to happen.
It almost worked. I hated needles. I hated being under. And I really didn’t want to sit there, while they replaced the implant and my head exploded... and I really had no choice. The implant needed to be out of my head; it was contaminated with whatever toxic sludge the explosive had mulched down into, after Doc’s chemical concoction had done its work.
They were all there when I agreed to let them take it out—and they were still all there, when it was done, and I came back around. That was kinda nice of them. I hadn’t realized just how dangerous the procedure was, until I opened my eyes, and found them all staring back.
“That bad, huh?” I asked, and Delight rolled her eyes.
“Hurry up,” she said, “or you’ll miss the briefing.”
There was a briefing? Since when was there a briefing?
I hurried as much as Doc would let me, while Mack and Tens waited outside the door.
“It’s not like she’s going anywhere!” Doc had snapped, when they’d looked like they might stay. It had been Tens who’d led the way out of the room.
“Old habits die hard,” Mack muttered, and followed after. “Don’t keep me waiting, Cutter. We’re meeting in the caf, before the briefing starts.”
I rolled my eyes at his departing back.
As if I’d ever!
11—Round Two Briefing
The meeting before the briefing was short, and not so sweet. The rest of the crew cleared out, and we discussed the situation on Costral, while we ate.
Delight had been doing some studying, while Mack and I had been guests of the Corovan clan. She confirmed that there were, indeed, eighteen clans on Costral, and the Corovans were the fourteenth. Clan Hazerna were seventh. For the Corovans to have lost the chance to marry that far up the food chain was a big blow to them, and explained a lot about why they wanted their kidnapped bride back.
“So, it’s a political marriage?” I asked, and Delight nodded.
“As far as we can tell, the first time the bride and groom met was six days before the wedding. Blaedergil kidnapped her the morning after that first meet-up.”
“You are shitting me. Why?”
“The Hazernas are seventh in the pecking order. It’s far enough up the food chain for them to have significant power, and just low enough that they avoid a lot of the more noticeable side-effects of that much power. Blaedergil was setting himself up to have a deciding interest in the trade treaties Costral controls.”
“Blaedergil’s dead.”
“Yeah, but Skymander isn’t,” Mack interjected.
And I remembered something Blaedergil said.
“The guy Blaedergil was going to send his bride to, after the birth?”
“Yup.”
He didn’t look happy, and it took me a minute to catch on.
“Skymander’s the one doing the wheeling and dealing?”
“Yup.”
“But why does he...did he...let Blaedergil...” I swallowed. Hard.
Mack worked out what I was trying to say, anyway.
“Skymander’s world is an unfriendly one. By having Blaedergil source his brides, he could be sure of two things: that they were fertile, and that they were strong in both mind and body.”
“That’s sick.”
“Yup.”
“But I thought Skymander lived on Magnus 19. He doesn’t?”
Mack shook his head.
“Nope, he doesn’t. We’re still trying to work out exactly where he’s based. All we have so far is from Blaedergil’s records. Skymander’s world is hard, and those visiting it tend to get sick.”
“Those girls upstairs...”
“Yes. None could build the immunities they needed for the diseases they’d encounter on Skymander’s home planet.”
“We should burn that place to the ground.”
Mack exchanged a look with Delight, and I couldn’t fathom what passed between them. It didn’t matter.
“It has to go, Mack,” I insisted, and Delight gave a snort of laughter.
“Who made you judge, jury and executioner?” she sneered.
I glared at her, wanting to ask who had made her one. I answered the question, instead.
“You did. When you had Mack kill me so you could get my ass on world, so I could do your dirty work.” I put one hand on my hip and cocked my head. “What’s the matter? Didn’t have the intestines to do it yourself?”
I paused, saw Mack’s mouth open, and forged ahead, before he could stop me.
“Oh wait. Maybe you weren’t Blaedergil’s type. Shame that, because he really isn’t picky.”
Tens had come through the door as I said it, and he stopped dead in his tracks, staring at me and Delight, his mouth dropping open in shock. Up until that point, Delight had been looking mildly annoyed, but, now, she grinned, and it wasn’t a friendly grin. It was more the kind of tooth-baring grin you give when you’re about to smack the crap out of somebody. When she replied, her tone was sugar-sweet.
“Oh, sweetie, we both know I wasn’t the best person for the job. Like you said, Blaedergil isn’t picky, and it’s you who needs the money.”
&
nbsp; It was the best comeback she could have made, and I was momentarily stunned to silence. I heard Tens suck air past his teeth.
“Ouch!” he said, and turned to me. “I’d quit while I was ahead, Cutter. We haven’t got time for a cat fight.”
Before I could reply, he’d grabbed a hot cup of kaff and headed back out the door.
“I’ve set us up in Nine,” he told Mack. “You coming, boss?”
I saw Mack raise an eyebrow at him, and then the captain reached over and slipped his arm through mine.
“I think I’d better bring Cutter,” he said. “There’s no telling what might happen to her if I leave her on her own.”
Delight gave a soft harrumph, and got up to sashay after Tens.
“Come on,” Mack said, and we followed after them.
I went with him, mostly because I was curious as to what, exactly we were going to do next, and partly because I couldn’t think of an alternative. What I wanted to do, now that I thought about it, was check my credit balance, and see just how much more I’d need in order to be able to get out from under Odyssey’s great, big thumb.
I followed Mack into the briefing room, and took a seat one down from him, near the head of the table. That earned me a speculative look from all three of them. Understandable, given I was known for sitting as far from any of them as I could possibly manage—and Mack in particular. I ignored them.
Mack must have realized I wasn’t going to say anything, and started the briefing.
“This is Lord Andreus Corovan,” he said, putting a picture of the young, stabby lordling on the screen at the end of the room. “He intercepted our delivery of Melari Hazerna to her mother, Tristel Hazerna. He is currently holding the Lady Melari hostage so that we do as he asks. He wants us to retrieve, Melari’s older sister, the Lady Treivani, from her current whereabouts. When we return with her, he claims he will give us the Lady Melari, and the cure for the disease she is carrying. I do not believe he will hold up his end of the bargain. There is something about him that is...not quite stable.”
He paused, looking at us. When none of us asked any questions, he went on.
“At first glance, it appears he is only in love with the older sister, but once he gets to talking, it’s easy to see that he does not view her as a lover, but as a possession. This man is angry because someone has stolen one of his possessions away.”
There was a snarl of revulsion in Mack’s voice as he continued.
“He has Melari in stasis, and is replicating the cure to make sure there is enough for distribution—but I believe that is more for his own people, than for anyone else. Initial impressions indicate he may attempt to follow in Blaedergil’s footsteps, and hold the planet to ransom with the virus in Melari’s system—even if we return Treivani to him.”
Mack turned to Delight. “Odyssey need to be prepared.”
She nodded. “Done.”
I watched as Mack’s gaze flicked over us, and then he pulled up a visual of Blaedergil’s complex on Magnus 19.
“Tens,” he invited, and Tens rose from his seat and move to the top of the table.
I watched him as he passed, saw his gaze flicker over us as he began to speak.
“We believe the authorities are yet to discover that Blaedergil is dead and gone. There has been no traffic into, or out of his facility, since our last visit. Unfortunately, we can’t be sure, as we are still working on hacking his communications system.”
I saw his face flush as he said it, and knew he was more than embarrassed at having to admit there was a system he had yet to crack. It also made me feel better about the fact that Blaedergil had hacked my implant, because if his people were good enough to defeat Tens, then they were very good, indeed. That was poor comfort, though.
We needed to know of any potential compromises to the operations. Not knowing who might or might not have been trying to contact Blaedergil since our extraction of Melari, was a serious flaw. I slid a glance at Delight, and saw she was none too pleased.
Tens caught her look, and passed the unspoken question to Mack.
Mack sighed.
“We have no choice. Lord Corovan will not allow for delays, and his people do not have Tens’ skills. It’s a risk we’ll have to take.”
He passed control back to Tens with a look.
“So, we do not know if there has been anything in comms that would have made anyone suspicious enough to come looking. We have to assume there has been, but that the interested parties haven’t arrived yet. We’re still trying to pull data from Skymander’s world, but that’s closed up tight. It’s not quite as tight as Depredides, but it’s pretty darn close.”
He glanced at me as he spoke, and I felt warmth flow up my cheeks as my face colored in embarrassment. I remembered Depredides. I’d been fortunate that the communications security company had decided to contact Abby and let her know their plans to gate-crash her auction. If they hadn’t, Mack and his team might not have been able to pull me out in time.
Yeah, that was another time one of my bids for freedom had been cut unexpectedly short. Tens didn’t pause long enough to rub it in, though. He kept right on with the briefing.
“We’ve gotten into the admin system for Magnus 19. That should give us warning of any interesting flights coming in—or if they choose to dispatch anyone to see why the Blaedergil complex has gone dark. In the meantime, we have the full blue-prints for the facilities. Let’s just say that some of Blaedergil’s contractors do not have his level of communications security.”
He went on to describe the layout, and then walk us through the areas that would be of more interest to us.
“We don’t believe Treivani is being held on the upper floors where the infected women, and Melari were located, but we can’t rule it out. We also can’t be sure the house guard are unaware of the real nature of Blaedergil’s absence. They don’t usually come into those parts of the complex. Whether or not they have started looking for him is currently anyone’s guess—and you will be going in before we have time to make it anything less.”
Tens highlighted the birthing suites, and I realized that Blaedergil hadn’t been lying about the woman giving birth. Her cries had come from the right floor, and the right direction on that floor. I hadn’t stayed long enough to confirm it, but had hurried straight up to where we had been told Melari was being held—which begged the question...
“Who gave us the intel on where to find Melari?” I interrupted, as Tens drew breath to continue the briefing.
I watched as Tens closed his mouth, again, and turned his full attention to me. For a moment, I thought I had asked something inappropriate, but I watched as Tens went still. His face grew blank as he focused on the question, and I figured he was replaying the events leading up to our incursion.
“I thought we got that from Lady Hazerna,” Delight broke in, but, when I turned to look at her, her face, too had the withdrawn look of someone checking their memories.
Mack and I waited while they got on with it. After a minute of studying them, Mack spoke.
“It wasn’t direct, was it?” he asked, and both of them colored in response.
Mack closed his eyes and leant his head back against the wall he was standing against.
“Is there anything else you can add to your brief?” he asked, and Tens was momentarily silent. When he replied, there was no doubt in his response.
“I’ll run you through the entry sequence, and then the route to where I think you need to go. After that, I’ve marked out a couple of potential exit routes, but you’ll have to discuss them. The team will be on overwatch, as usual, so porting you in and out is now an option, as long as you reach the upper floors, or the roof. We still haven’t dealt with the shielding on the lower levels. Don’t get caught down there.”
“Can you pick us up if we got outside the building?” I asked.
I remembered seeing windows, and ledges, and balconies.
Tens thought about it, and nodded.
&
nbsp; “We’ll keep those in mind for an emergency,” I told him.
“Is there anything else?” Mack wanted to know, his gaze shifting between Tens and Delight, and only briefly resting on me.
I gathered he was asking if there was any more to the briefing, not if I had any more questions. When we were all silent, he pushed off the wall, and headed for the door.
“You and Delight have homework,” he told Tens. “Find me the informant, and means of contact...and get me Skymander’s whereabouts.”
I was on my feet and following him, before he remembered I was there.
“Cutter, you’re with me.”
“Like I couldn’t tell that,” I sniped, but he didn’t stop.
In fact, he showed no sign of having heard me at all.
12—Tooling Up
“We need better equipment,” he said, when I caught up to him in the hall. “We didn’t have nearly enough, last time.”
“Yeah? Well, you didn’t arrive butt-naked with a hole in your chest,” I snapped.
He hadn’t had enough equipment? Man! I hadn’t had any.
“I won’t let that happen again,” he said.
I wished I could believe him, but I didn’t, so I didn’t say anything, just followed him down the corridors of his ship, until we reached the small fabrication shop set up in Engineering.
What did we need from here?
“Grappling hooks.”
I frowned, not liking the implications. Mack’s lips twitched when he saw the expression on my face, but he didn’t bother to explain.
“Come on,” he said, and we headed for Supply.
I figured he’d tell me when he was ready—and would get far too much satisfaction if I asked.
To my surprise, there was a range attached to the Supply Store—a firing range. For target practice. That was news to me. I wondered if Mack would let me on it.
He must have caught me staring at it, because he answered.
“Later, Cutter. Right now, we need weapons.”
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