BANG.
BANG bang bang.
Sean felt himself losing his footing. Then, his head was whipped violently to the side, and he felt himself change direction.
He was floating through the air, and then, nothing.
Nothingness lasted a little while until gradually, he became aware of the nothingness.
Then, he felt his head throbbing. He went to move and felt cold concrete beneath him. He managed to lift his head, trying to open his eyes against the light. Squinting and aching, he felt like he had been hit by a train.
Eventually, he realized what had happened and brought himself up to a sitting position. Dragging himself, aching, up against the side of the tunnel he had been running through, he checked himself for injury. He looked down at his chest. There was a laser burn the size of a billiard ball in the top layers of his atmosuit.
Thank fuck for Federation-issue suits, he thought to himself, delicately prodding his fingers into the holes in the carbon-fiber layers beneath.
He tried to take a deep breath but winced. It may have stopped the round, but his body still had to dissipate the momentum. And momentum burned like a motherfucker.
Still in pain, he leaned forward over his legs and started to haul himself up. There was no telling how long he’d been out, but one thing was certain: whoever those guys were, they had Karina, and by now, they were long gone.
He looked up the corridor, briefly wondering if he should carry on anyway and try and narrow down who had been there.
Then he remembered the space rat he had been about to haul into questioning. He turned back the way he came and started limping down the corridors as fast as his cyborg ass would carry him.
Maybe he’d give Karina’s flunky a chance to redeem himself, after all.
* * *
Sean was moving a little more naturally by the time he arrived back in the main part of the station. His pain modulators had kicked in, and repair had already begun on the bruising in his chest. He’d also found a lump on his head where he must have hit it during his fall. That was the biggest danger of being able to move so fast. It hurt like hell when you were forced to stop quickly.
Things had started to return to normal already. Station security were doing their thing, cordoning of the area and milling around, presumably talking to witnesses. Sean made his way up to the scene, careful to maintain a large enough distance so that he didn’t look too curious. His eyes scanned the area, picking up all the minute details that might be relevant later. Nothing caught his attention, though.
He passed by, leaving the scene behind him, his eyes now scanning for Karina’s contact. If anyone was going to be able to tell him what the fuck was going on, it was going to be him.
Sean chuckled to himself as he approached the spot where he had told the reprobate to stay put. Part of him thought he might do it just because he was scared and stupid. Part of him was disappointed that he hadn’t. It would have amused him. He kept his eyes peeled as he walked, retracing his step, trying to figure out where his mark might have gone.
If the lackey was cooperating, he’d stay nearby. If not, he’d be long gone. Sean decided to assume for now that he’d be somewhere within eye shot so that when Sean returned—
A movement caught his eye over to his right. Just outside the shadows of a crevice between two faux-fronted buildings, he caught sight of the sweaty, inept human he had been chasing. Seeing Sean, the scrawny human nodded and then stepped back into the shadows.
Sean crossed the walkway and headed over to meet him.
“Good decision,” he grunted as he approached the alley.
Ronnie looked up at him. “I got out of the way, though. Station security turned up.”
Sean nodded. “Fine. Okay, now you’re going to start from the beginning and tell me exactly what is going on.”
The human swallowed. “Okay,” he agreed.
Minutes later, Ronnie had introduced himself and told Sean the story so far. Sean hadn’t needed to resort to any form of violence, to his mild disappointment.
“So, Karina hired you to lay down fire and lure me in. But that doesn’t explain who those assholes were who took her.”
Ronnie wrung his hands nervously. “I dunno who they are. I thought it might have been part of her plan.”
Sean pursed his lips. “It could be. But I don’t want to take that chance. Who might they be?”
“What do you mean? I just told you I have no idea who they are.”
Sean stepped forward menacingly.
Ronnie flinched. “I dunno. I swear. I’ve never seen them before!”
Sean looked down at him sternly. Maybe violence isn’t out of the question, he mused to himself.
“Look,” he said out loud, “the odds are, if you know Karina in this sector of space, you’re dodgy. I’d bet my Federation pension on it. So, I’ll ask you again. Given who the big bad is in this sector, who is it likely to be?”
“Erm, well, if I had a gun to my head and I had to guess,” Ronnie said slowly, perspiring again. Sean raised his eyebrows, reacting to the gun to his head comment. “I’d say maybe the family,” Ronnie finished hastily. He gulped.
“Which family?” Sean pressed, his agitation now showing.
“The Calzones.”
Sean’s complexion turned gray. He lost his train of thought for a moment. “Okay,” he said, floundering a little. “Lemme guess, you work for the family.”
His tone made it a statement.
“How do you know?” Ronnie asked, staggering back half a step to restore some space between them.
Sean shook his head. “Sorry to tell you this, kid, but you’re a walking cliche.”
Ronnie’s eyebrows knotted. “Oh. I dunno what that means.”
“Never mind. It’s a good thing today.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because,” Sean explained, “it means that you’re going to be able to help me.”
Ronnie was still flummoxed. “How?”
Sean was regaining his posture, though. “Since you work for the people who are likely holding Karina, you can get me into where Karina is being taken.”
Ronnie started backing up, stumbling in the darkness of the alley. “No. No way. Not if she’s going where I think she’s going.”
Sean stepped forward again. “You will. Or I’ll kill you where you stand.”
Petrified again, Ronnie froze on the spot. Sean watched as the fear subsided and turned to utter dismay. His shoulders slumped. “Well, I guess I don’t have a choice.”
“Good,” Sean grunted, his mood not changed even a little by Ronnie’s agreement. “Now that that’s arranged, let’s go take a look at your ship. See what we’re dealing with.”
Sean marched Ronnie to check Ronnie’s ship. Satisfied it was spacefaring and agile enough, he then frog-marched him back to the dock where he had left Scamp.
“Climb on,” he said, nodding toward the invisible staircase.
Ronnie looked at him in confusion. “I, erm… need to wait for the stair lift or something.”
Sean chuckled to himself. He didn’t have time to drag this out. He pushed past Ronnie and started climbing. Ronnie watched in awe and then scrambled up after him.
“Don’t touch anything. Don’t ask any questions. I need to talk to my computer and then we’re leaving.”
Sean showed Ronnie into the kitchen of The Scamp Princess and left him there while he went to talk with Scamp in the cockpit.
Aboard The Scamp Princess, docked at Glom Space station, Kirox Quadrant
Sean sat in silence for a few moments in the cockpit. Thinking. Contemplating.
“Scamp?”
“Yes, Sean?”
“I’m going to have to take another ride to where Karina is.”
“Why?”
“Because if I show up in The Scamp Princess, they’re gonna see me coming, and they’ll hurt Karina.”
“I se
e.”
“I need you to wait here for me.”
“Sean?”
“Yes?”
“Is it dangerous?”
“Nah. It’ll be a walk in the park.”
“Only, if it’s dangerous, we should talk about what I should do if you don’t come back. My programming is to return to the Federation after twenty-four hours, unmanned.”
There was silence for a few moments.
“Can we override your programming?” Sean asked.
“Only if it is mission critical.”
Sean thought a while longer. “Well, how about this: you wait for me here for three days. If I don’t come back, then you return to Molly so that she can complete the mission?”
“What mission?”
“That’s above your pay grade, Scamp.”
“You’re saying that so I have to override the twenty-four-hour window.”
“Maybe I am. But either way, you have to do it, right?”
“You are correct.”
“Good.” Sean pushed himself up out of the pilot’s chair and winced.
“Are you damaged Sean?”
“Nothing a good night’s sleep won’t fix.”
“I don’t think you should be trying to do whatever you’re doing on your own.”
“I have no choice, Scamp.” Sean laid his hand gently on the top of the console. “You’ve been a good friend, Scamp. Thank you for everything.”
And then he strode out of the cockpit.
“Why did that feel like a goodbye?” Scamp muttered to the empty room.
Sean poked his head into the kitchen. “Alright, Ronnie. Time to move.”
Ronnie hadn’t had time to poke around and was still sitting quietly at the table. He jumped up and followed Sean quickly out of the kitchen and then through the passageway back out of the side door with the invisible steps.
He hesitated as his foot hit something firm that he couldn’t see. And then he trotted down after his new master.
Sean didn’t even look back. When the two were off the staircase, Ronnie could hear some kind of machinery moving, and then the door closed, and the locks slid mechanically into place.
He glanced back briefly and almost ran into a maintenance cart on the dock. Flustered, he turned his attention just to following Sean and then jogged to catch up to him.
* * *
The pair arrived back at Ronnie’s ship in no time. Sean obviously had a good memory. Or he knew the station. Ronnie dared not ask which. He seemed even more agitated than before.
“Okay,” Sean gruffed, climbing on board. “Let’s get her out of here as fast as possible.”
Ronnie obeyed quietly, full of dread for what Sean was about to make him do.
Chapter 7
Unknown location, somewhere in Kirox Quadrant
Karina came to in a cold room. She moved her head, twisting to see where she was. She was lying on some kind of bench. She swung her legs around to sit up and felt a chain drag. Opening her eyes, she realized where she was. And she didn’t like it.
Metal bars made up one wall. Cold gray stone made up the other three. She was chained by one ankle to a bolt in the wall by the bench she was lying on.
Shit.
“Guard!” she shouted. No response. “Guaaaaaaaaaard!” she screamed again.
No one came.
She slumped back against the wall, then curled her legs up to her chest. She knew how this went, and she could end up being here a while.
She sat in the half light, thinking.
If only she had told Mrs. Bates “no,” she wouldn’t be here now. Or she could have just come clean to Sean. She didn’t have to lure him out here. Or get that Ronnie kid to make things look realistic. And how the hell did these goons find her?
Her mind reeled, searching for understanding.
Odds were, they’d killed Sean right there on the station. So that was her fault.
She felt her insides implode with guilt. Her life was once again well and truly fucked. Only this time, there was no Sean Royale to pick up the pieces.
She rested her head back against the cold wall. Fuck.
Footsteps. There were footsteps coming from the other end of the corridor. That meant someone probably wanted to talk to her. A guard appeared. “Okay, princess. You’re up.”
The guard didn’t wear a uniform. None of them did in this group. That was the family way. They were paid as employees but expected to act as… well, family. Complete loyalty was demanded. And assumed. The alternative is… well, death.
The man was human but enhanced. Karina couldn’t be sure that he was one of the goons that got the jump on her. They all looked the same out here, with their over-beefed muscles and worn atmosuits.
It didn’t matter anyway. She always knew that one day she would probably have to face the music.
The guard put her in arm braces and then undid the chain on her ankle. “Move,” he grunted, pushing her toward the open door.
“You didn’t bring any backup to fetch me?” she asked, trying to provoke him for no other reason than she was annoyed and wanted to take it out on someone.
“Didn’t need it, sweetheart. Nothing much you can do. Nowhere to run.” He grabbed her upper arm roughly and pushed her ahead of him down the corridor, toward the lighted building beyond.
The flunky led Karina up through a series of walkways and corridors and into a mag-lev elevator. Karina recognized it, but it had been a long time since she was last here, and there were certain things that had changed. She wouldn’t like to have to navigate her way out of this place under duress.
But then, this didn’t seem to be a day where she was going to get everything she wanted.
Eventually, the cyborg brought her to a door. He knocked. A gruff voice answered from the other side. The flunky hit the “open door” button and shoved her inside.
The decor was warm and expensive. Carpets. Curtains. All the trappings of an executive suite on a trading outpost. A trading outpost in a corner of the galaxy she would rather have never visited again.
The man who was in command of everything on the outpost stood looking out of the window, out into space and the dock activity on the other side of the station.
“Karina,” he cooed, without turning around. “Nice of you to join me.”
Karina scowled and tugged herself away from the cyborg that was escorting her. “Yeah. The pleasure is all yours, Dad.”
Don Calzone turned around to look at his daughter. “Is that all you have to say to your Papa after all these years?”
Karina glared at him. “What can I say? I’m not the sentimental type.”
The Don’s expression turned serious. “Me neither,” he shared. “I should kill you where you stand.”
Karina raised her chin defiantly. “Fine. Do it. I’d much rather die than end up locked in a cage in this shithole.”
The Don’s eyes flared, and his complexion turned red with fury. “How dare you talk to me like that?”
“How dare you have me put in your shitty dungeon like that?” Her demeanor shifted. Since leaving this place, she had learned to hold herself in a certain way. A way that wouldn’t draw attention. A way that would allow her to look humble and deferent. But now, back under the same oppressive conditions, she felt her old ways coming back. Her back straightened, and her shoulders went back, ready to assert her authority, even to her father, the local crime lord.
“Well, you are behaving like the enemy!” he spat in fury, clearly unaccustomed to anyone challenging him since her departure.
“That’s what happens when you treat people like the enemy!”
“I did everything for you,” he protested, his anger spilling out into a lecture she had heard a million times. “I educated you. I taught you our ways. I prepared you to take over the family business.”
She didn’t miss a beat in her response. “I didn’t want to take over the goddam busines
s. I hate what you do!”
Vito wasn’t going to be beaten. He slammed his hand on his desk. “There’s a fine line between love and hate. You would have grown to love it. Just like I did. And my Papa before me.” His anger was falling away as he ranted, clearly showing he no longer had the energy he once did. He sat down at his desk, a look of exhaustion on his drawn face.
“I hated you for the longest time,” he added more quietly. “But then, I thought you’d died. I had no idea you just betrayed me.”
He picked a laser gun up off his desk, his energy renewed. He got up and walked toward her with it. “I should blow your head off right now, though. Send a message to all those who might cross me!”
Karina maintained her posture. “I’d be surprised if you need me to send a message. From what I remember, you were always pulling shit like that, just in case someone, somewhere might undermine your authority.”
“Well, it worked!”
“It’s pathetic,” she spat venomously.
The Don’s fight disappeared from him, and his shoulders slumped as if the plug had been pulled out of a blown up balloon. “Karina…” he started, his voice hesitant now.
“No, don’t ‘Karina’ me, Dad. You dragged me out here. I was in the middle of something. What do you want?”
The Don sighed. “I want… I want my daughter back.”
He paused.
Karina waited.
“All this time, I thought you were dead. I wanted to kill you for not being more careful. And then, then, I find out that you’re alive. And not only are you alive, but that you left with that spy!”
“He wasn’t a spy.” She paused, the cogs turning behind her eyes. “How did you know I left with him?”
Calzone shrugged, the fight fully left him now. “I didn’t. Until you just confirmed it. Then… there were rumors you were still alive.”
“Well, whatever,” she grunted, looking pointedly at the arm cuffs. “It’s not important now.”
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 178
