The Daedalus Job (Outlaws of Aquilia Book 1)
Page 17
“Double shit,” I muttered. “Why the hell can’t you just have the captain do that, if it’s a DSA cruiser?”
As though answering my question, Mars said, “The fact that those cores ended up in your hands means someone is skimming serious hardware in Chal. Someone high up, which means we can’t trust normal channels. We’ve already changed the command on the convoy to remove one variable. You’re going to help remove others. However, on the off-hand that the trackers fail, we’re going to need you to remove some of the cargo as well. I’ve attached information on what we need swapped out.
“Everything you need is now sitting in your hold. Good luck.” There was a pause, and then Mars continued. “You’ll still need to get those cores, so the sooner you can get the coordinates out of Penny, the better. I can pick them up while you focus on the convoy. But don’t let her see the DSA gear. She can’t know what you’re doing. Oh, and the officer in charge of the convoy escort is Major Commander Sinclair.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Triple shit and a fuck to boot.”
My life had just become infinitely more complicated, but at least one thing would be easy. I didn’t need Penny to share the location of the four cores I’d set adrift. The only problem was, they were in a crate that DSA Intel would be able to trace back to my ship.
I rose from my bed and took a deep breath. I’d have time to sort through that; right now, I had to be the captain. There would be plenty of time to panic later.
21
LAST FLIGHT OUT
Aboard the Kerrigan…
We were under our own steam, the tug having departed hours prior, and our primary burns were done. A correction was coming up in an hour, and then a solid burn for a day before declaration and vector matching with Pilar Station in orbit around Lothar.
Tammy was on the bridge while Oln and Finn were playing a combat sim in one of the smaller holds. Penny and Sherry had retreated to their cabin, and I had the upper passage’s feeds pinned to my HUD so I’d know the instant they left.
Kallie was in the aft engineering bay on the lower deck, the perfect place to have a private conversation.
When I reached the space, she was bent over a console, shaking her head. I tried to approach slowly, but she turned and glared at me before I’d taken more than a few steps.
“What?” she barked the word.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, walking to her side.
The engineer shook her head. “Just the usual. The repair on the port engine housing wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, and our burn is ever so slightly asymmetrical. I’m adjusting max thrust on our starboard main until I can shift our center of balance enough to compensate.”
“I have ‘the usual’ going on, too,” I replied.
“Oh? Was there some secret message on that tablet?”
“How’d you know?”
Kallie snorted and folded her arms. “Because after you got onto the bridge and we disembarked, you went to the can, muttering about how you’d been holding it forever. Kinda TMI, don’t you think?” One of her perfectly shaped eyebrows arched in question.
“No, I don’t think it’s TMI. A man can mention that he’s in an urgent situation without need for judgment.”
Her eyebrow stayed up. “Sure, whatever. Wouldn’t want to get in your way while you were making a beeline. Stop changing the subject, though. What was the message?”
I gave her the highlights, which included who was in command of the convoy.
“So let me get this straight. Mars wants us to board a DSA cruiser while Sinclair will probably have her hand up our asses?”
“That’s a disturbing image. Good thing she only has so many hands. I volunteer Oln and Finn.”
Kallie fixed me with a serious look. “Jax. How are we going to do this? Axing Penny and Sherry was going to be hard enough, but doing this as well? Who does Mars think we are, demigods or something?”
“Based on some of her conversation with the general—and now this—I kinda wonder if they’re strapped for resources. Either that, or maybe Mars hates us and wants us to get caught.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Kallie muttered. “OK, so now for the next question. How do we access those crates’s contents without Penny and Sherry knowing?”
“Very carefully, I guess. We also need to make a plan for assaulting the Daedalus. Mars gave us the layout and breaching instructions…which I think we’ll specifically not use.”
Kallie nodded vigorously. “Agree with a side of agree. Oh! I have an idea.”
“Do tell.”
“You know how Finn and Oln are obsessed with combat sims?”
“Yeah, it’s all they do lately, when they’re not falling asleep at their posts—something I suspect is connected to the sims.”
“Well, one of the sims they’re playing has to do with a war between Delphi and Paragon. Honestly, it’s propaganda bullshit, but it does have a mission where you attack a captured DSA cruiser.”
“Oh ho.” I nodded vigorously. “We get into the crates, get the specs on the gear they gave us, and then you alter the game to be our training system?”
“I’ll need Finn’s help, but yeah, that’s the gist of it.”
I rubbed my hands together. “OK, this is going to be fun.”
“That’s just one problem covered, there are still a lot of other ones.”
“Yeah, but it’s an auspicious start.”
22
AMISS
“You’re going to wear a groove in the deck, Pen.”
She paused mid-tirade and glanced at me in annoyance. “Yeah, well, I doubt anyone would notice on this tub.”
“If you don’t like it, why did you pick it?” I asked, leaning back on the pillows—which, while not a patch on the Spintzer Hotel, were still a damn sight softer than what I was used to in the military.
“Because it’s a shitty tub,” Penny countered as she squeaked back and forth across the small cabin. “No one would expect us to be doing something as important as getting those cores in this ship.”
I nodded absently, wondering if that’s all that was going on. That Penny would bring me along on this trip—with no other backup—seemed suspicious. Sure, she had hired this ship and crew in the past, but they weren’t especially loyal to her. Not only that, but they were sitting on a lot of credit after their recent haul and didn’t really need the work.
A whole lot didn’t add up.
I was, however, glad I was here. Not just for Penny’s company. That last-minute delivery of DSA hardware had piqued my interest. I planned to take a few walks in the main bay to take a look at it. I wasn’t sure if I could get inside, but it was worth a shot.
“What if the DSA learns we’re here?” I asked. “I mean, they won’t care about me, but what about you? That could complicate things.”
The woman in red shrugged. “Not for me. That’ll be Jax’s problem. I doubt they knew we’re here, though. They wouldn’t have let him take any sensitive cargo if that was the case.”
“You’re that dangerous, are you?” I purred.
Penny stopped and turned to face me. “You should know that by now. I earned my place at Korinth’s side, with blood, blood, and more blood.”
“Other people’s, I hope,” I said. “Or is that why you wear the red?”
Penny snorted. “A bit of both. Still, it’s nice not being as big a target as Korinth, it helps me get my job done. Though I’d like to do a bit of a side job….”
She let the word hang, and I nodded. “Go on. What are you thinking?”
“Well, I’m a curious sort, and I’d really like to see what the DSA needed to get to Chal so badly that they put it on the Kerrigan instead of using one of their own transports.”
“So you want me risking getting my cores to take a peek in the DSA’s crates? Whatever they’re shipping, it’s not
worth that. If we get caught, you don’t get paid.”
Penny waved a hand in dismissal. “What do I care about Korinth’s money? I just like to turn over all the stones.”
“I don’t know. I’ve seen Korinth. I’d be concerned. Really concerned.”
“He’s got more money than the DSA at this point, what’s a few million more?”
“Oh!” I gave her a considering look. “Then maybe he’ll let me have the cores for free, given the fact that they’re just floating around in space somewhere.”
Penny sat on the bed next to me. “I don’t recall saying that’s where they were.”
“Deductive reasoning.”
The woman in red’s visage grew cloudy, and she cast a glance at the door. “They’d better be safe and secure. If Jax did anything to damage them….”
“Make up your mind.” The words came out stronger than I’d intended, so I added a giggle for good measure. “First you want the money, then you don’t. Then you are willing to risk the cores to learn what is in those crates, now you are angry about Jax using them as leverage over you.”
“I’m not—what makes you think he’s doing that?”
I winked. “Deductive reasoning.”
Penny turned and leant over me, placing her hand beside my left one while her hip pushed against my right side. My breath quickened. I couldn’t help it. Yes, the woman was a criminal who played with both Delphi and Paragon like they were her personal chess pieces—or rather, her boss did—but there was something intoxicating about the power she wielded.
That thought spurred another, and a tendril of doubt slipped into my mind.
Despite being his underling, Penny didn’t exhibit any sort of strong loyalty to Korinth. Her behavior was more like that of an equal…or maybe someone who was disillusioned.
It occurred to me that perhaps Penny was double-crossing Korinth in some way. Delivering the cores to me and taking the money for herself. Seventy million credits was enough to live like a goddess in Chal.
Or maybe she would just throw Jax under the hull. The poor guy seemed to be everyone’s whipping boy. He was certainly someone to consider if I was going to hook up with Jacy and Cynthia after we got the cores—if I couldn’t get the coordinates to them before we arrived. If that happened, then they’d need to dock with the Kerrigan.
And that would mean blowing my cover. Unless everyone aboard died.
Is getting intel to stop a war worth murdering this ship’s crew?
I wasn’t so certain.
“Where are you at, Sherry?” Penny asked. “You’ve got the thousand-klick stare there.”
“Just thinking about our situation. I wouldn’t want to crack that cargo too soon. We’re nearly two weeks from where the cores are, right?”
“Close,” Penny nodded, not giving anything away.
“Right, so let’s wait till we’re in the DL. People always lower their guard when they’re in the deep dark.”
“Sure.” Penny shrugged. “What’re we going to do until then?”
I looked up at the woman looming over me, and traced the back of my index finger along her smooth jawline. “Oh, I have some ideas.”
23
ONWARD
I was enjoying my last few minutes in bed, planning out the day’s activities, when a comm connection hit the ship. It was from the last person I wanted to talk to, but the one I couldn’t ignore.
It occurred to me that I probably shouldn’t antagonize her so much, but I was playing my own game. If I kissed ass, she’d be suspicious that I was up to something. However, if I acted like she expected me to, belligerent and annoyed, she might believe that my place in the convoy was nothing other than what it seemed.
Oh, so that’s how this is going to be. I sighed.
I winced. Finn and Kallie were both certain that Penny hadn’t hacked our comm systems, but I still would have preferred that Sinclair didn’t bring up my work for Intel. Of course, I couldn’t tell her not to bring it up. Not without telling her who else was on my ship.
Despite the fact that Sinclair had a stick the size of a comm tower up her ass, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was right. The political situation in the L walked a tightrope, and I didn’t really take part in activities that helped that balance. If the nebula fell to war, I’d have some part in the blame.
Her tone was smug, and I wished there was a way to deliver a physical slap across the Link.
I sent a yawn across the Link, cutting her off.
Sinclair was a smart commander. She’d earned her rank, and was a hard-nosed, by-the-book woman. But in all honesty, her reaction to my being in the convoy seemed a little over the top. Even for her.
Either that, or she really doesn’t like me.
The connection terminated, and I pulled myself out of bed. “What a way to start the day,” I muttered while stumbling to the san. “I think an extra-long, hot shower is in order…and maybe a drink.”
The bridge of the Victorious Strike hummed with its usual activity as I terminated the connection with Captain Bremen. It was a soothing thing to see everything proceeding as it should—at least on my ship.
I took a deep breath, forcing my heart rate to lower as I considered the conversation with Jax. I’d meant to lay down the law, to let him know that whatever deal he’d struck with Intel wasn’t going to get him any special treatment from me.
Instead I railed at him like a crazy person.
It made no sense. No one got under my skin like that. Why him?
Maybe because he really doesn’t seem to care. He never says it, but something in his posture…or bearing. Whatever it is, it just feels like even if I did blow his little bucket of bolts out of the black, he wouldn’t give a shit.
That made him unpredictable, which was quite simply the worst. Especially when it came to a man who had no clear loyalties and would do anything for credit.
“Major Naomi,” I addressed my newly assigned CIC commander who sat below me in the next ring down. “What’s the convoy status?”
“Ma’am,” she said without turning, her hands dancing over her console with admirable speed. “All ships in the escort are ready and in formation. The Mobile Fleet Platforms are still forming up, but will be ready in thirty minutes.”
“And the civilian ships?” I asked.
“They’re all in their lanes except for three that are wrapping up debarkation—and that new ship that’s
coming in from Myka.”
I resisted a sigh. “They can catch up, we’ll be boosting slow enough at the outset.”
“That was going to be my suggestion as well,” Naomi replied. “They’ll be able to meet up faster if they adjust vector to intercept once we’re underway, and we won’t have to wait.”
“Perfect.” I nodded. “Relay the updates to them.”
No way I’m talking to Jax again if I don’t have to.
I reached out to Admiral Reginald to inform him of our departure time.
It took a moment for the admiral to reply, but when he did, I was surprised at his words.
Again there was a pause.
I wanted to ask the admiral why something so important was on a smuggler like the Kerrigan in the first place, and why it couldn’t just be transported to one of the escort cruisers. There was more than enough room in the DSA ships to fit whatever the courier-sized ship could hold.
But I knew that he was aware of all those facts, and if he’d wanted that outcome, the admiral would have suggested it himself.