Chilling Effect_A Novel

by Valerie Valdes

  It didn’t work.

  Then, to her surprise, he let her go and turned to Vakar. “Shoot her first if she does anything stupid,” he said. “Don’t let them get her.”

  Vakar’s palps twitched. “Sorry, sir. I only take orders from the captain.”

  Pete smiled, elbowing Eva in the side. “Good answer.”

  Vakar must have been doing a self-control exercise, because all she could smell of him was a hint of lavender. The hell did he have to feel smug about?

  “Not to shoot the elephant in the room, but where’s my ship?” Eva asked. “You didn’t sell it, did you?”

  “Come on, Bee,” her father said. “Do you really think that little of me?”

  She pursed her lips.

  “It’s at my private dock. Even you don’t know where it is, and I’m not about to tell you.” He walked back to his desk and opened a drawer, pulling out a pair of gloves and slipping them on. “Wait here and I’ll bring her around.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” She walked back out to the antechamber and took a seat, crossing her legs primly. “I’ll raid your pantry while you’re gone.”

  “The expensive stuff is in the back,” he said with a wink. She watched his head bob down the stairs and disappear.

  When he had left, Vakar said, “You know he probably hid a tracker program in with all that information he gave you.”

  Eva smiled. “Of course he did. He’s slippery as a starwhale in liquid methane.”

  “Taught you everything he knows, did he?”

  “Not by a long shot.”

  La Sirena Negra floated in as gracefully as her namesake, the battle damage to her dark metal exterior making Eva wince. Pete stepped out of the airlock, pulling off his gloves and tucking them into a zippered jacket pocket.

  “She’s still got a leak in the tail, but she’ll run,” he said. “You’ll have to double up on coolant until you patch it.”

  “Vakar can handle that,” she said, resisting the urge to hug her ship. She’d get a wicked burn if she tried it, judging by the ticking of the hull and the heat radiating off it. The secret dock must not have been planetside.

  “Stay safe now, Eva-Bee,” he said. “I’ll see you when I see you.”

  With a quick wave, Pete walked back down the landing strip to his building. He favored his left leg, as if his med kits had run out and all the old wounds of the past were catching up with him. Which was probably what was happening. She had to get this whole mess sorted before he ended up wherever they were trying to send him.

  Her family was busted enough already.

  Her crew had come up behind her, their minimal baggage in hand. Min practically salivated, her eyes watering. Pink stood with an arm around Leroy to keep him steady. Vakar, well. He smelled like vanilla and ozone.

  “Come on, then,” she said. “You waiting for an invitation from the president?”

  Eva went in first, carrying her bag to her cabin and dropping it on the floor. She could almost feel everyone taking up their posts, slipping into old habits like hands filling gloves. ((Mess,)) she pinged, and got a chorus of acknowledgments.

  Family.

  Chapter 13

  Dame Pan y Dime Tonto

  They sat around the table in the mess, as if they hadn’t been apart for almost a month and running from trouble. Eva explained her intentions with her mouth half-full of food.

  “So you’re saying you’re loopy as a bug in a window,” Pink said.

  Eva shook her head. “We can do this. All we need is a plan, a solid plan. But flexible enough to survive contact.”

  “And our incentive for helping is?” Pink asked, pursing her lips.

  “Not much, so if you want out now, I understand,” Eva said. “Absolute best-case scenario, we save my sister and take down a bunch of terrible people who’ve been preying on others for years. Worst case, we die or end up on some asteroid mine wishing we were dead.” She shoveled more food into her mouth.

  “I think I liked it better when she was lying to us,” Leroy muttered.

  “There’s probably money to be made, one way or another.” Eva swallowed, then chased it down with a sip of coffee. “They have their own bank accounts, assets, caches of weapons and other stuff we could steal and resell.”

  “That sounds like piracy,” Vakar said, smelling minty. Anxious.

  “I prefer to think of it as vigilante justice.”

  “Or war,” Pink said. “Sorry, Leroy.” She cast a glance up at the big man next to her.

  Eva nodded. “Leroy, you especially don’t have to be any part of this. It’s . . . a lot.”

  He stared down at the table, his right eye twitching as he reached up to tug at his beard.

  “Where else am I gonna go?” he said quietly.

  “There are plenty of—”

  “Yeah, I know. I could be a stevedore on Nuvesta, or Boulea, or Stabanov. Maybe sling crates on some merchant freighter.” He closed his eyes. “Nobody’s gonna want me around after the first time I lose my shit. If it ain’t the nightmares, it’s the temper.”

  “You haven’t had a nightmare in a while, thanks to your meds. And anyway, people would understand.”

  “They’d tranq me up or fire me. I know it would happen, because it happened before.”

  Pink put a hand on his arm. “You’re doing better than you think.”

  “Am I?” His voice cracked. “Look at our last passenger.”

  Vakar said nothing, but his smell had gone from mint to incense. Eva was pretty concerned herself.

  You could go back to your moms, she almost said, not for the first time. But there was a reason he mostly chatted with them by holovid instead of visiting: he was more afraid of hurting them than he was of nearly anything else.

  “If you stay, you stay on the ship,” Eva said instead. “I don’t want you out there in the middle of a firefight getting ideas.”

  Leroy nodded, then grinned. “Someone has to watch out for Min, right?”

  “Assuming Min wants to stay.”

  “Of course I do,” Min said. “I don’t want to go back to the pits. Robot fights are awesome, but not as awesome as space. And I definitely don’t want to be a solar farmer.”

  That left Pink and Vakar.

  Eva considered Pink’s expression over the rim of her coffee cup.

  “Don’t give me those puppy eyes,” Pink said. “My brother would let me sleep in his basement if I asked, and I’d get to hug my niblings before bed every night. Hell, I could get a job on any ship or station or planet in the fringe if I wanted.”

  “If you wanted?”

  Pink smirked. “I don’t, but I could. Anyway, my brother’s basement is cold and I like stealing from assholes. It helps me sleep at night, almost as good as hugs.”

  I don’t deserve you, Eva thought, not for the first time. Pink inclined her head as if she knew exactly what Eva was thinking and agreed.

  Vakar, on the other hand, was pumping his uncertainty right into the air, the sharp tang of ozone nearly burning her nostrils.

  “Vakar?” she asked.

  “I require more time to think,” he replied.

  “Fair enough.”

  Eva stood and gathered her waste, tossing it in the recycler, then knocked back the last of her coffee. More time to think. What did that mean? Was he still angry at her? He should be; she was terrible, and she’d been a huge jerk to him specifically.

  She felt queasy about everyone else opting to stay, like she was more responsible for them than ever. If she let them down again, shit was going to go straight-up Humpty Dumpty.

  “I assume you’ve got some grand plan you’re cooking up,” Pink said. “Spill.”

  “Shouldn’t be too tough,” she said, shaking out of her funk. “We retrace our steps from the deliveries and make some trouble, see if we can’t hack their terminals and find other locations to hassle while we figure out which asteroid mine has my sister. The ship may have moved on, but the bases are at least likely to be on t
he same planets.”

  “What kind of trouble do you intend to make?” Vakar asked.

  Eva’s lips curled into a snarl. “The kind I used to be really good at: persuasion with a side of punching. These assholes came looking for me, and they have most certainly found me.”

  What Eva found, unfortunately, was a whole lot of nothing.

  La Sirena Negra flew to Suatera first, where they had disposed of the delightful Miles Erck. The lab was in the same place, but scans revealed that not only was its security inactive, there were no signs of life inside. Eva and Pink took a quick look around to confirm the readings; sure enough, the place was completely empty, like a corpse picked clean by razor ants. Not even the computer terminals had been left.

  Vakar stayed on the ship, performing never-ending system checks and minute repairs. Eva saw him only at the late cycle meal, and he didn’t look at her, just sat around smelling morose and uncertain.

  Beskore was no better than Suatera, its acid rain replaced by radiation that strained Eva’s suit to the limit. It took them some time to locate the mobile facility, which had moved since the bug-juice delivery, but it was equally bare inside. Scorch marks from blaster fire and the occasional larger explosive residue suggested a fight, but against whom? BOFA? Pirates? The locals had no answers, or weren’t interested in sharing them with her.

  The ship in the Cadrion system was both easier and harder to find; it was very near where they’d last seen it, but it was apparently blown to pieces. Most of the fragments were too small to offer any clues, and the rest hurtled through the frictionless void toward unknown destinations.

  Eva could relate.

  La Sirena Negra lazily drifted toward the nearest Gate, waiting for a destination.

  Everyone once again sat in the mess room, staring at Eva, who herself was staring down at her hands as if they would tell her the right place to begin.

  “I’ve been reviewing what information I have,” Eva said. “There are definite patterns. Some of this is guesses based on reports from the Freenet—”

  Pink made a scoffing noise and rolled her eye.

  “—and the coverage in more mainstream news channels,” Eva finished. “Which are run by rich people with their own agendas.”

  “What’s wrong with the Freenet?” Leroy asked. A chorus of groans answered.

  “Man, don’t get me started,” Pink said. “Ain’t nobody got time for that.”

  Eva leaned forward, her hands moving as she talked. “It’s possible to draw some lines between random crap and people dropping into or out of the spotlight. Or deals getting done that came out of nowhere. Pete did a lot of research over the years, off and on, and more in the past few months, but it seems like The Fridge moves fast to plug any leaks.”

  “So what do we have to work with?” Pink asked. “Names, places?”

  Eva shrugged. “Mostly, we know the victims and not the perps. Sometimes there’s overlap, of course, because of how The Fridge operates. That makes it harder to separate valuable targets from useless ones.”

  Vakar drummed his gloved fingers on the table. “It’s a shame you can’t contact your handler. They were a victim, too, assuming they weren’t lying.”

  “That’s the good news,” Eva said, grinning. “Min found my handler.”

  Min made a scoffing noise through the speakers. “I would have found them faster if I hadn’t had to keep running that noob through the same dungeon until the boss dropped the stupid epic helmet he wanted,” she said.

  “Lord save us from noobs,” said Pink. “And the bad news?”

  “They’re being held as collateral by quennian military right now, under cover of a pleasure cruise in Crux Zagreus, while negotiations are ongoing over a trade embargo with a tuann faction in the quadrant.”

  “Why would they be collateral?” Leroy asked.

  “They are a high-level diplomat,” Vakar said. “Or related to one. It is not uncommon for a prisoner exchange to occur, to encourage civility among negotiating parties.”

  Eva eyed Vakar, leaning back in her chair. He sure knew a lot more about this than she expected from an engineer. Then again, not many engineers knew how to fight and shoot, either.

  “I don’t suppose you know any specifics, quennians being involved?” she asked.

  “It is not as if all quennians are allied, any more than all humans are.” His palps twitched and his smell soured.

  “I wasn’t assuming anything, just asking. According to what I found, House Remilin is the prime negotiator. That ring any bells?”

  “I know of them, but am not acquainted with any of their members directly. Their commander was Veltus Nazaril, last I heard, but that may have changed. I apologize for my ignorance.”

  Eva rolled her eyes. “Please. I couldn’t tell you the name of the president of my home planet if you put a gun to my head.”

  Vakar wagged his head and raised a hand diffidently.

  “It’s not Veltus anymore, anyway,” Eva said, scanning her notes. “Now it’s someone named Galenia Farinus san Bellitan.”

  Vakar froze, and Eva held her breath.

  “That,” he said, “is interesting.”

  “Someone you know?”

  “I know of her.”

  That sounded like a story for another time. Eva filed the thought away for future reference, because it really didn’t make a whole lot of difference for her plan.

  “So. We need to bust in on this pleasure cruise somehow and talk to Pholise, without starting an intergalactic incident,” she said. “Normally that would be up to me, but I don’t suppose they’re likely to have any humans hanging around?”

  “You would be like a firebat at any funeral,” Vakar said.

  Leroy perked up. “Why not take Vakar with you?”

  “No way,” Eva said.

  “That is a bad idea,” Vakar said at the same time.

  “You can smell him from a mile away,” Eva said. “He’s a terrible liar.”

  Vakar smelled embarrassed, and a touch confused. “I . . . Yes. The captain is correct.”

  Shit. Eva hadn’t told Vakar about getting the scent translators installed. Well, that cat was out of the habitat.

  As if in response, Mala leaped onto the table and settled down into a furry loaf position.

  “Then again,” Eva said slowly, “a good lie should be almost true anyway. It would just take some careful phrasing and a solid cover story.” Plans percolated in her head like coffee. Plans, and more plans. Could she? No, it was a terrible idea. Disrespectful. Arrogant. Presumptuous. And yet—

  Pink snorted and stood. “Y’all fool asses come and get me if you need something. I’ll be in my room talking to my ancestors.”

  Eva nodded. To Leroy, she said, “You can go, too, if you want.”

  “I’ll check on the cats,” he said. “And our supplies, so we can restock before we leave.”

  “Min,” Eva said.

  “Yeah, Cap?”

  “Take us over to Crux Zagreus. Any recommendations on a place to park, Vakar?”

  He made a pensive clicking noise. “Antrade has a decent port. It is BOFA space, but far from Nuvesta.”

  “Out of sight, out of mind, then. Take us there, Min.” Eva stepped over to the food synthesizer to prep another meal. “I’ll get back to you in a few, Vakar. I need to see if I can pull any strings. Unless—” She swallowed. “We could drop you off somewhere along the way, or at Antrade, when we get there.”

  “I will consider the offer.” He looked like he wanted to say something more, but got up and left, trailing a smell like ozone and cigarettes.

  Eva had plans, all right. They were crystallizing as she walked to her cabin. But first she needed to talk to Pink.

  “Are you serious?” Pink asked.

  Eva nodded. She sat on the bed in the med bay, kicking her right leg nervously.

  “First of all, you’re ridiculous. Second, you’re so full of shit, your eyes are brown. Third, this is the worst plan
you’ve ever had.”

  “Come on, I’ve definitely had worse.”

  Pink choked on a laugh. “Name one.”

  “Okay, what about . . .” Eva snickered. “The zenorach.”

  “That wasn’t a plan. That was self-defense. And you were laughing the whole time like a teenager.”

  “Please, it was a giant plant with tentacles that looked like penises.”

  Pink snorted. “It was a protected species.”

  “And I protected us from getting eaten alive. You’re welcome.” Eva tapped her pursed lips. “Remember that time on Drazania, when we were trying to sneak through that blockade to pick up those weird pets—”

  “The ones that wheezed toxic gas?” Pink wrinkled her nose. “They smelled like a corpse ate another corpse and then had diarrhea.”

  “Yeah, those.” Eva shook her head. “I swear, rich people will buy anything just because it’s rare. Anyway. We made it in, got the critters, then realized our exit had been cut off.”

  “And you had the bright idea to take us through a gas mine instead of waiting for Tito to find another way to extract us.”

  “It would have been perfect if Cook hadn’t taken a potshot at that floating gas bag.”

  Pink slapped Eva’s arm and smiled. “That’s how you’re going to play that? You were the one egging him on. We had a half dozen military boats chasing us for miles once they saw the fire. I had to shoot at them out the open back of our transport, with Wolf and Dyer holding on to me so I wouldn’t fall.”

  “Yeah, it was pretty great.” Eva grinned. “Dillin threw up twice and swore she’d never work with me again.”

  “And she never did, bless her.” Pink’s smile faded. “This plan, though. This plan has layers of foolish. It’s like a big birthdate cake of foolishness with a lot of damn fool frosting on top.”

  Eva shrugged. “If it doesn’t work, you’ll have one less thing to worry about.”