Blaedergil's Host

by C. M. Simpson

  On the view screen, Treivani smiled when she saw us, and I could only guess that we, too, were up on a wall-length screen in whatever space she was seated. Beyond the babies in her arms, she appeared to be completely alone, but I doubted that was the case.

  “Thank you for trying to rescue me,” she said, “but I don’t need it.”

  She gestured for someone off-screen, beckoning them to come into the shot, and cooed down at the babies in her arms. The man who stepped over to sit beside her was who we’d expected to see from the start. Odyssey had at least come through with the files, even if the company wasn’t anywhere in sight, now that we needed them.

  “Sandoval,” Mack said, as he watched the small drama being played out for our benefit.

  Sandoval’s lips twitched into a small smile, and he sat on the low arm of the lounge, draping his arm across Treivani’s shoulders. She looked up at him, adoration plain upon her face.

  “Mackenzie Star,” he replied. “It is good to finally meet you.”

  Mack didn’t return the compliment, but sat, his silence demanding more. Sandoval waited, but didn’t take long to work out that Mack was waiting for him to explain.

  “I suppose you are wondering why you’re still in one piece,” he said, his smile slowly fading.

  “You could say that.”

  “And I suppose you’re wondering how we caught up to you so quickly after your pilot’s most impressive piece of flying.”

  “It would be handy.”

  Sandoval’s smile had completely left his features, and the expression that had replaced it was more what we’d been expecting to see, in the first place: cold, hard calculation, with just a hint of threat.

  “And?” he asked, challenging Mack to elaborate.

  “What do you intend?”

  “That is the heart of it, isn’t it?” Sandoval replied, and, if he was disappointed by Mack’s directness, he didn’t show it. “You tried to take what is mine by mutual agreement.”

  And Treivani leant her head back against him, looking supremely content.

  Mack shrugged.

  “It is what we were hired to do.” He nodded towards me. “Her life is forfeit if we do not bring Treivani back.”

  Sandoval assessed me with a careful gaze.

  “She doesn’t seem important enough for you to lead with her safety.”

  And now I was riveted. Sandoval had a point. Why hadn’t Mack just stuck with the excuse of a mission? Mack gave me a look that told me nothing more.

  “Let’s just say that she’s part of a bigger contract, and I’d like to collect the fee.”

  I frowned. Well, at least I knew, now. I figured the Odyssey training contract was a pretty good one, and not just from the credit side of things. The intelligence benefits had to be a nice add-in, too.

  Mack shifted uncomfortably as he caught the thought, but I didn’t know why. It’s not like I didn’t know what the benefits of working with Odyssey were. I caught a flare of annoyance, and then nothing. It puzzled me, but I could always chase it later. Right now, we had more important things to worry about. Sandoval was speaking.

  “You said you were hired. Who sent you?” he demanded.

  “Andreus Corovan,” Mack told him, and Sandoval’s face twisted with distaste.

  Beside him, Treivani looked horrified.

  “And Melari?” she asked, before Sandoval could respond.

  That was interesting. None of us had known Treivani was aware of her sister’s presence in, and disappearance from, Blaedergil’s mansion. “Is she all right?”

  “We didn’t see her after they took her pod,” Mack said, but he didn’t explain how we’d been captured shortly thereafter.

  He didn’t need to; she had already turned to Sandoval, her face filled with anxious appeal.

  “We have to get her back,” she said. “The clan needs her.”

  I watched as Sandoval jerked his head towards her, his face showing concern.

  “Please,” she whispered, and I thought I saw the shimmer of an escaped tear running down her cheek.

  Sandoval’s mouth tightened, but he nodded, raising a hand to stroke her cheek as he turned back to us.

  “We want Melari returned,” he said.

  “And the antidote,” Treivani added, catching her husband’s startled glance. “We need that. Andreus must not be allowed to keep it. There is no other cure.”

  There wasn’t? Now why did I think that was more bad news than anyone needed right now?

  Amusement lifted Sandoval’s expression, but only for a moment.

  “You said you came to retrieve my wife,” he said, and I felt my heart sink, wondered if Mack and Tens were having the same sensation, but Sandoval continued. “Well, now I have something for you to do.”

  “We cannot take a second commission until we complete the first,” Mack interrupted, and Sandoval gave him a mirthless smile to rival his own.

  “You can,” he said, “because I am voiding your original contract. I have seen your company profile; you operate as above board as your business allows, which means you don’t traffic in lives; you don’t carry out assassinations; and you don’t topple governments. In fact, if I didn’t have the facts to prove otherwise, I would say you operated as an extension of Odyssey.”

  Mack didn’t let him continue.

  “We don’t!” which made me wonder what Odyssey had done to earn that much of his ire.

  “You’d be surprised.”

  I didn’t think so; Odyssey had pissed me off plenty.

  Mack gave a soft grunt of acknowledgement and shifted his attention back to Sandoval. I followed his gaze, unnerved to find the Skymander lord observing us closely.

  “Very well,” he said. “You don’t work for Odyssey. Even though, I think you do liaise with them, and that is why I found a pair of their agents in my castle.”

  “Your castle?”

  Mack shot Tens a look that carried an order, and Tens went still. Sandoval twitched an eyebrow.

  “I could save you the trouble,” he said, “but it’s more fun this way. In the meantime, I am voiding your contract with Andreus Corovan.”

  I heard Mack’s sharp intake of breath, but Sandoval cut across him, even as Tens spoke.

  “You don’t have an option.”

  “It’s gone live!”

  Live? I looked down at my boards, but saw nothing. Mack looked down at his console, and paled. When he raised his head, he’d schooled his face to a careful blankness that I knew all too well.

  Mack at his most inscrutable was a Mack that was about to create more than a little havoc. I wondered exactly how Sandoval was going to deal with that. The Skymander lord raised a hand.

  “Before you say something you’ll regret, yes, I know her life is forfeit.”

  He gestured at me, and I tensed, waiting for the axe to fall. Sandoval ignored me, and continued.

  “But scans show no explosive in her skull, and that the implant is new, so I’m going to assume you fixed that little problem.”

  When Mack made no reply, Sandoval revealed how he’d known what my predicament might be.

  “Treivani says that’s a favorite of her ex-fiancé’s, so I’m going to assume you’ve dealt with the Corovan’s threat, and her life is safe, for now.” Again, he paused, as though waiting for Mack to speak. When Mack said nothing, he went on. “We need you to retrieve Melari, and bring her to us. She needs to be out of Corovan hands.”

  Mack looked back down at his console, and then up at Sandoval.

  “It’s not like you have a choice,” the lord added, but Treivani stirred restlessly, and he looked down at her, catching the expression on her face.

  That look was hard to describe. It was almost as though she was telling him what to do, without ever saying a word.

  “Like I do,” Mack murmured, and it made sense—if Sandoval had a battle cruiser, then having an implant wasn’t too far a stretch. I felt ten times as dumb as usual, but kept my attention on the pa
ir on the screen. Sandoval sighed, and lifted his gaze from his wife’s face.

  “My beloved has a point,” he said. “Threatening you probably isn’t the best way to gain your cooperation...”

  His voice intruded in my head and, judging from Tens’s hiss of indrawn breath, and Mack’s sudden tension, in their heads, too. “Even if I’d rather just destroy you, now.”

  “...so here is what I am prepared to pay,” he said, out loud, and he named a figure I found ridiculous, even by Mack’s usual standards of cost.

  Mack obviously felt the same way.

  “It’s too much,” he said, just as Tens interrupted.

  “Powered down.”

  Mack relaxed a trifle, and named a price that was a third lower than Sandoval’s initial offer, and I watched surprise flit across the Skymander’s face—surprise and suspicion. Before he could say anything, Mack explained.

  “We have standard fees for each type of job, and standard additions,” he said, nodding to Tens. “No client pays more than any other, although, in your case, there are some additional costs.”

  As Tens went to work, some of the suspicion left Sandoval’s expression. This was something he understood. Beside him, Treivani observed the negotiations, her eyes showing more interest than her otherwise relaxed position suggested. I remembered that she was the eldest daughter of a clan whose power came from trading, and figured she was better able to assess what she was hearing than I was. After all, she’d have been raised to have all the skills she needed in order to act successfully in her clan’s best interests.

  I heard a ping from the screen, and Sandoval’s gaze shifted.

  “Thank you,” he said, his eyes travelling back and forth as though he was reading something. “Those terms are acceptable. We’ll negotiate extras. I note you have no termination fee.”

  “We fill all our contracts,” Mack told him, and I watched as the muscles flexed along his jawline.

  “Shit,” Tens murmured, and the ship shuddered shortly thereafter. “Mack, we...”

  Mack held up a hand, his expression hard.

  “I’ll be adding the cost of repairs to your bill,” he said. “You had better hope none of my people have been harmed.”

  What Sandoval might have said, was lost as Treivani shifted suddenly in her seat, and cast a commanding glance towards one side of the screen. Seconds later, two women crossed in front of her, and lifted her children from her arms. When they were gone, she reached down and pulled a small computer from somewhere near her feet, and set it on the coffee table before her.

  Sandoval watched her as she opened the screen, and tapped at the keys. When she stopped and looked at him, he turned his attention back to Mack.

  “Now, we are ready to negotiate,” he said, and I sat and watched as he and Mack traded costs, prices and demands. All the while, I sat in front of the weapons board, monitoring the only thing I had any control over: whether or not I activated the Shady Marie’s shields. There was no way in all the stars I was going to activate the ships’ weapons.

  For one thing, the drives were off-line. If I brought the weapons on line, we’d lose too much power for other essential systems—and that was the other thing: I had nothing to feed the shields, which meant we were sitting ducks for Skymander’s weapons’ crews. I wasn’t feeling suicidal. Nothing caught my eye, on the first pass, but I watched, and I waited, because I was pretty sure Sandoval had yet another trick up his sleeve, and we weren’t out of the woods yet.

  19—Winning Friends

  From what I could tell, negotiations were going well, when Delight intervened. She appeared at the back of the room to one side of Sandoval, a small, carefully swaddled bundle in her arms, a Blazer protruding from beneath it. Pritchard was nowhere to be seen.

  “Delight!” Mack roared, even as Sandoval and Treivani turned to see what had drawn our attention. “Stand down—and give that child back to its mother!”

  At the sound of his voice, Delight turned her head, and looked at the screen. The grin she gave us was as feral as any I’d ever seen.

  “I’d rather not,” she said, and moved swiftly so that she was standing slightly to the side in front of Sandoval and his bride.

  “You two,” she snarled, and I flinched at the fury in her tone, “have caused me more trouble than your lives are worth.”

  “Delight!” Mack said, and the screens went dead. “Well, fuck me twenty times to Sunday! Tens!”

  “I’ve got you.”

  I wanted to ask Tens what he meant, but his hands moved swiftly across the controls in front of him, and silver light enveloped me.

  “Well, fuck me,” I managed.

  Mack’s voice greeted me as the light dissipated from around us.

  “You are combat trained, aren’t you Cutter?”

  I nodded, turning my head to take in my new surroundings. I did not want to know how Tens had calculated the coordinates for that little stunt, but I was really glad he’d gotten them right. We’d materialized in the room opposite Delight.

  “It was easy. I tracked the signal for the ship’s coordinates, and then tracked the source to the right deck.”

  “Shut. Up. I don’t want to know.”

  And I truly didn’t. I had other things to occupy my attention. Getting under cover, for instance, so I didn’t get my ass shot off. Delight had this snap-shooting thing down pat. I’d thank Mack for the body armor, later.

  “Excuse us,” Mack said to Sandoval. “We’ll be off your ship shortly.”

  Somehow, I doubted that, but I wasn’t going to argue. If the man said we’d be off the ship, shortly, then that’s what we’d be doing. I had no doubt that Tens was preparing the teleport, as we spoke.

  “Delight,” Mack said. “You need to come with us.”

  She scowled at him.

  “You have no idea—” she began, but Mack cut her off.

  “And you can fill me in when we get back to the ship. Now, give the lady back her baby.”

  “But—”

  “I’d do it, Catriona,” Pritchard advised, and I startled, because his voice had come from right behind me.

  I didn’t think, just reacted, sidestepping and turning to take him in. He waited, watching as I came round to face him, and then he let me take the gun from his fingers.

  “Tens?” I said, but a faint silver glow was growing around Pritchard, and I knew Tens had already picked him up.

  I took Pritchard’s gun and stepped back around so I could see what was happening with Delight and Sandoval. Mack had moved, interposing himself between Delight and her targets, and Sandoval had quietly slid off the arm of the couch, and taken his first step around its end.

  “Stop,” I said, and both he and Treivani glanced towards me. They froze, as I levelled Pritchard’s stolen weapon at them. Sandoval started to smirk, but, before I could work out why, Mack spoke.

  “Drop the gun,” he said, and I heard a clatter. “Now, give me the child.”

  I kept my eyes on the lord and his lady, but was aware of Delight stepping forward, and of the tiny adjustment Mack made to his stance as the child was handed over. The muffled sound of a smaller weapon going off came as a sudden and unpleasant surprise.

  “Now,” Mack groaned, and I saw silver surround the Odyssey agent as she was whisked away.

  Mack waited until she had vanished completely, before coming slowly around to face Sandoval and Treivani. His face was pale, and beads of sweat had started to form on his forehead, but he indicated the child held in the crook of his arm, and took a step forward.

  “Your child,” he said, and she was off the couch and taking her baby from his grasp before I could react.

  To my surprise, Sandoval followed her, pulling her into the curve of one arm as he looked at Mack.

  “Thank you,” he said, and Mack nodded.

  “Now,” he whispered, and Tens wrapped the teleport around both of us, and pulled us back to the command center.

  When we arrived, Mack wrapped hi
s arms tightly across his stomach, and staggered over to his console. He sank into the chair, and, before either Tens or I could ask him what was wrong, he’d activated its stasis capability, and enclosed himself in a pod.

  Tens swore, and I saw the gun in Delight’s hand. She caught the expressions on our faces and twisted her mouth into the facsimile of a smile that came and went in a flash. I brought Pritchard’s gun up, and trained it on her, returning her expression, as I glared.

  “You have a cabin,” Tens said. “Go there.”

  And Delight laughed.

  “You’re sending me to my room?” she asked, in disbelief, but Tens refused to be drawn.

  “And we’re billing Odyssey with the cost of your retrieval, Mack’s medical expenses, and the cost of the inconvenience of Mack being down.”

  Delight opened her mouth to argue, but Tens wasn’t finished. He looked at Pritchard.

  “You might want to get her out of here, before she adds anything else.”

  Pritchard looked at Delight.

  “You shot him?”

  She shrugged.

  “Your point?”

  Pritchard didn’t answer, he just wrapped his hand under her bicep and moved her towards the command center door. When she brought her arm back into his gut, he pulled her across in front of his chest, and wrapped an arm around her throat, putting her out in seconds. When she’d stopped struggling, he scooped her up into his arms, and continued to the door.

  “She’ll be fine, when she wakes up,” he said. “If you wouldn’t mind locking the doors to our quarters once we’re inside?”

  “Done,” Tens agreed.

  Pritchard dipped his head in acknowledgement, and walked out, taking Delight with him.

  “You know that thing still has its safety on, right?” Tens asked me, when the door had closed behind Pritchard.

  “Hell, I don’t even know what this thing is,” I told him, “but Pritchard handed it to me, instead of shooting me in the head with it, so I guess I’m grateful.”

  “You’re lucky Pritchard was with her,” Tens said. “Things could have gone south in a very bad way, if he hadn’t been.”

  As he spoke, the view screen went live, and Sandoval came into view. Treivani wasn’t in sight, and Sandoval was alone.