Breakeven

by Michelle Diener

  “I'm in a sort of informal settlement just outside Dar Raca--”

  There was a sound at the door behind her, and Dee stood up and turned, her body blocking the comm unit, and she pulled her laz.

  Koan flung the door open and she shot him, but he stepped in, unharmed, and shot straight back.

  She fell, and she could hear Leo's shout from behind her, Koan's roar of anger as he lunged forward. She hit the ground, with Leo issuing threats to Koan, and Koan switching the comm unit off.

  “I thought Caro still had the crystal.” Koan threw it on the floor and crushed it beneath his boot.

  She tried to smile, but she couldn't move the muscles of her face.

  Too late, she wanted to say.

  She only hoped she was right.

  Sebastian knew where Darren, Vahn and Ruanne were.

  It was hard to miss when the guards were so focused on the low wall beside the gate out of Dar Raca.

  He guessed they'd tried to blend with the workers moving to and from the settlement, and someone had noticed.

  He wondered if it was just that they'd stood out--Vahn and Ruanne certainly looked like they'd been in a fist fight--or whether someone had recognized them.

  Some of the guards at the gate could have been on guard rotation in the Tree, watching them at some point.

  It didn't matter. They were hunkered down, taking fire, and so far, he looked like the only one on their side.

  The screen above the gate flickered to life, and Sebastian shifted in the crowd that had gathered to gape at the exchange of laz fire happening right in front of them.

  He was in a mix of gen-pop heading home after a night shift, the more well-off workers who lived in Dar Raca itself, and a few people who looked like genuine Cores execs. Most of them didn't react to the screen coming on.

  They thought it was the usual job auction.

  The sound of fists striking flesh took a while to penetrate, but slowly they lost interest in the firefight and turned to the screen.

  Sebastian smiled. It meant Dee was safe. That she'd made it through.

  Everyone shuffled forward, trying to get a better angle.

  That suited Sebastian. It got him closer to the wall where his friends were taking cover.

  The guards saw the crowd moving, but Sebastian could see them hesitate, unsure what to do, and at least half of them were watching the screen.

  On the other side of the gate, more of the gen-pop from the settlement were gathering, watching from the square, and as the numbers began to swell, the guards became twitchier.

  “I didn't realize how many people had been forced out into the forest,” a man beside him murmured.

  Sebastian could see he was in a suit similar to the one Sebastian was wearing himself.

  “Where did you think they'd gone?” he couldn't help but ask.

  The man shrugged. “I thought they'd moved out to the pipelines. I was told the closure of the independent firms would be made up for in extra mining jobs.”

  “You were lied to,” Sebastian told him. “And even that doesn't excuse you, because where did you think extra jobs were going to come from, if there were no new mines, and why would you think a mining job out in the forests would make up for taking someone's company away from them?”

  The man stared at him in shock, and then looked away, his attention back on the screen.

  Sebastian had to rein himself in. The faces of people he knew, children he knew, thin to the point of painful, haunted him, and he needed to shake off the ghosts at this moment, and help Vahn.

  He kept to the edge of the crowd, laz at hip level, close against his body, as he angled himself and lined up a shot at the guard closest to the wall.

  He fired, and while he didn't hit the guard full on, he went down, clutching his shoulder.

  The other guards reacted, looking around wildly, some caught off guard because the screen had been holding their attention.

  Vahn stuck his head out from behind the wall, and got off a shot, hit another guard, and ducked down.

  “Shit.” One of the guards looked at the two downed men, looked at the screen, which had looped through Hanran Fattal throwing his own guards, along with everyone who lived on Lassa, to the mercy of the Caruso, and holstered his laz. “I am done.”

  Sebastian wanted to tell him he'd made his decision six months at least too late, but no sense ruining the moment. Especially as it was in his favor.

  “Get back here.”

  The guard ignored the order as he walked away, back into town, and Sebastian used the moment of frustration and indecision to shoot another guard.

  A hum filled the air as a hover flew in from the hover base along the elevated track, and then slowed to a stop close to the resistance headquarters building.

  Sebastian wondered if they had stopped to watch the screen, which Caro had looped around again.

  He was lining up yet another shot when he saw the headquarter's window nearest the hover open.

  The hover rose up off the hover track and moved across, the hand of the driver a trifle unsteady as it moved sideways and bumped into the wall, then rose a little to align the hover door with the window.

  The view into the main seating area of the hover was clear from where he stood, and Sebastian watched as Koan stepped out of the building and into the hover carrying someone in his arms.

  Not someone, Sebastian realized in horror as he made out the gray of the uniform, the dark hair swinging from a limp head. It was Dee.

  Koan was the mole. And he had Dee.

  Chapter 35

  “You owe me.”

  Dee realized she'd drifted off for a while, because she was in a hover now, not the floor of Koan's office.

  “Here's your payment in the form of invaluable advice. Get off this planet.”

  There was a moment of silence. “Are you joking? You said you were looking for a hover out to the pipelines.”

  “That was when I thought the worst that had happened today was that the gen-pop, along with the Cores guards, were about to learn a few home truths and discover that Vahn was still alive. The Cores won't hold on to power much longer than this afternoon. It was before I discovered that thanks to this interfering idiot,” he shoved at Dee's shoulder, “the Bodivas have all the information they need to take Lassa back before the Breakaway treaty expires at the end of the week.”

  Dee kept her face lax, but her glee was immense. The full recording must have gone through. And Leo would make sure it got where it needed to go.

  The information might not reach Bodivas in time to save her--although she didn't understand why Koan had taken her at all--but it would mean Lassa would have the full force of the VSC coming to save it.

  “So you're not going to hide out for a few months and then find a way off planet on a trader? You're leaving now? How?”

  Dee cracked open her eyes to see who was talking.

  She was lying on the floor of the hover, and she could feel the tips of Koan's boots against her back, so he must be sitting behind her. To catch a glimpse of the speaker, she'd have to tilt her head, so she didn't try, but he was sitting up front, and she guessed he was the driver.

  “I did a quick deal with the Caruso after I found out what our Garmen friend here had shared with Bodivas and the VSC. The Caruso will give me some credits and get me off the planet, in exchange for a valuable shield.”

  “What shield is that?”

  Koan shoved at her shoulder again.

  “Her? What's so important about her?”

  “According to the threats from the VSC official she was speaking to when I caught her passing on Hanran Fattal's incomprehensible confession, the full might of the VSC will rain down on me if I so much as hurt a hair on her head. It makes me think they won't shoot down a Caruso ship if she's onboard. That turns out to be as valuable to the Caruso as it is to me.”

  “I won't leave with the Caruso. I don't trust them.”

  Koan laughed. “You're not invi
ted to. I don't care how you get off-planet, I'm just telling you it's the only way you won't be caught up in the mess.”

  “No one knows I helped you. I kept it to myself.” The driver seemed to be trying to convince himself.

  “If you say so.” Koan didn't bother to hide his skepticism.

  The driver said nothing in response, but the atmosphere seemed to sour and Koan didn't speak again either.

  “Are you back with us, sunshine?” Koan shook her when the hover stopped, and Dee pretended to stir.

  She could move, but was unsure how limber she was after the laz hit. Which reminded her. She'd hit him directly in the chest and he hadn't flinched. “You . . . wearing . . . anti-laz . . .?” She kept her words slurred.

  “Of course I'm wearing an anti-laz layer. I knew you'd shoot me when I stepped into the office.” He hauled her to her feet, his big hand clamped hard on her shoulder, and she winced and stooped a little to ease the pain.

  Koan pushed her out the door of the hover, and she stumbled out into a loading bay, into the growing heat of the day and the stink of hover afterburn. She flicked a wistful look at the hoverport building, remembering the serenity and cool of it from before.

  “Walk.” He put his hand in the center of her back and his laz to her neck, and herded her ahead of him, but she didn't have to fake the way her legs kept trying to crumple beneath her and the loss of balance as she walked.

  The whole world seemed to be swaying around her.

  She hunched over, crossing her arms over her chest and used the motion to surreptitiously pat at her pockets, to find out what Koan had or hadn't taken from her.

  She almost sank to the hard surface of the launch pad in relief when she felt the shape of what she was looking for.

  With a curse, Koan stepped to her side, hooked a hand under her armpit and dragged her the rest of the way to the dark Caruso warship that had towed her and Sebastian here to begin with.

  It looked even bigger up close.

  As they approached, a ramp extended and a door opened up.

  A Caruson soldier stood in the doorway, massive laz cradled in his arms, the ridges of his thick skin clear in the bright morning sun. He stepped back to let them in.

  “Where to?” Koan asked, and the soldier pointed to a room just off the entrance.

  “Just her. You come with me.” He spoke in a halting voice, unsure of the language, and Koan gave a nod, shoved Dee into the room.

  She didn't bother turning, or protesting. She heard the door close behind her.

  As soon as it shut completely, she looked around, trying to see if she was being watched remotely.

  In the end she couldn't be sure if there were cameras on her or not, so she pretended to feel faint, putting a hand to her head, and staggering to a corner of the room.

  It was really a cell, or possibly where soldiers about to deploy gathered to receive their final orders and wait to disembark. Benches had been clamped to the walls, and she sat down and then swung her legs up to face the far back corner, bending over her knees, curled up tight, so all anyone would see was the curve of her back and the top of her head.

  She had to take a breath to steady herself as she fiddled in her pocket, trying to look like she was rocking from side to side in fear rather than up to no good.

  The door opened, and she turned to look over her shoulder.

  There was shouting out by the ship's ramp, orders being given.

  “What is your name?” The Caruson who stood in the doorway looked more senior than the one who'd let them in--there was some insignia on his uniform. She guessed he was the ship's captain.

  “Rina Fattal,” she said.

  The captain looked at Koan.

  “She's lying. Her name is Dee and she's from Garmen. I know for a fact that she's important to the VSC.”

  “We'll see if that's true. Come with me.” He gestured to Dee and she stood up, but too quickly, and she tipped over a little to the side.

  “What's wrong with her?”

  “I shot her with a laz.”

  The Caruson looked at her with professional interest. “What setting?”

  “Lightest one.”

  “She's small and thin.” The Caruson shrugged. “Can't take it, probably.” He made the gesture again. “Come quickly.”

  Dee complied, following behind him, aware Koan was coming along behind her.

  The captain stepped into what looked like a comms center, and pointed to the first Caruson woman Dee had seen, sitting next to a huge screen. “Hail the main Bodivas battleship.”

  “I can't be seen,” Koan said, nervous.

  “Then stand out of the way.” The captain pointed, and Koan moved deeper into the room and stood behind the screen.

  The tech bent over the panel in front of her, and Dee took stock.

  The door to the comms unit was open, and just down the passage she could see the main entrance to the small warship was still open from when she and Koan had been let in. Soldiers were running in and out, and she guessed Koan had told them a Bodivas attack was likely and they were packing up to leave.

  She didn't think she was going to get a better chance to execute her plan. The moment the ramp was lifted, her options were nonexistent.

  Even if she had no idea, no idea at all, what would happen.

  She tipped again, as if the floor was moving beneath her feet, fetching up against the captain.

  “Sorry.” Her voice came out a croak, her throat tight with fear and anticipation.

  He put massive hands on her and set her away from him. “Sit.” He pointed to a chair, and then staggered back himself.

  Everyone--Koan, the tech, a soldier passing the doorway--stared at him as he ran into equipment behind him, sending some of it crashing to the floor.

  “Are you all right--?”

  He started screaming, the sound making Dee cover her ears, and he pulled the laz he'd shoved into a leg holster out. He aimed it at the soldier at the door and shot him.

  “Admiral Yoto responding to your hail.” The woman who suddenly blinked to life on the screen's eyes widened as the captain screamed again, swinging around to smash one of the panels behind him.

  Dee caught her eye for one single heartbeat, then ducked under a desk as the captain stepped deeper into the room and, using his laz like a club, swung it at Koan.

  She didn't know if he hit him or not, she was too busy drawing a second shot of venom into the syringe she'd taken off Hanran Fattal, but she saw the comms expert fall, lifeless, from her chair, and then the captain ran out the room. He turned deeper into the warship, and Dee scrambled out from under the desk.

  She heard the Bodivas admiral call out to her, but she ignored the hail, flying out the room and running for the ramp.

  The soldier who'd let them in was blocking the entrance, and he aimed his laz at her, but his attention kept flicking to the carnage that was clearly audible from the bowels of the ship.

  “I'm just getting to safety,” she said, lifting her hands in surrender. She turned back as the laz fire and screaming got louder, walking backward. “We need to get out of here.”

  “No. Get in the room.” The soldier looked down the passage, then to her, and pointed to the cell he'd put her in earlier. “You can wait there.”

  “I'm sorry. No.” She flinched back against him as laz fire scored the ceiling halfway down the passage, and depressed the syringe. Like the captain, he didn't seem to feel it.

  He took a step forward, almost as if he'd forgotten she was there, and she darted around him and down the ramp, running in a zigzag as fast as she could go toward the hover track.

  Behind her, she heard him scream, the sound over-scored by the sound of laz fire, and she felt the nausea build in her throat as she pushed herself far harder than her body wanted her to.

  A sound swelled up behind her when she was halfway across the launch pad, and she stumbled to a stop and turned to look, saw a ship around the same size as the Caruson warship droppi
ng from the sky like a raptor.

  A light flicked over her, she caught sight of it on her arms and torso, and then the ship began flying in an upward curve and the Caruson warship she'd just left went up in a conflagration.

  She was blown backward, twisting in midair to land with hands out, although she bashed her knee. She stayed still, head hanging down, on all fours, heaving in sour, burnt air, feeling the wash of heat, and then gingerly twisted to look behind her.

  Her arms gave out and she flopped down.

  She'd expected debris with the blast wave, but whatever was in the weapon used to blow the Caruso ship up, it had contained the blast. There was almost no debris at all.

  To her right, the Bodivas warship, she assumed it was Bodivas, and if it wasn't, she didn't have any fight left in her, landed back down.

  Troops ran out and she watched them with detachment as a few headed for the Caruson warship, and the rest headed for the hoverport building.

  She leaned forward, head resting on her forearms, and felt the burn of the late-morning sun on her neck.

  “Dee Vanuka?”

  She twisted around, had to shield her eyes to look up at the woman who approached her.

  “Who's asking?”

  “Commander Delkin.” Delkin put out her hand, and Dee grasped it, allowed herself to be hauled to her feet.

  She tried not to cry out at the pain in her scraped hand, and Delkin looked at her sharply as she swallowed back the pain.

  “Thanks for checking to make sure I wasn't in the warship before you blew it up.”

  “You saw the light scan?” Delkin sounded interested.

  Dee nodded.

  “You're a long way from home, I hear,” Delkin said after the silence stretched out.

  “Well, technically, yes.”

  “Technically?” Delkin raised her eyebrows in surprise.

  “I've come to like it here.”

  They stood, side by side, looking at the Caruso ship, which was still red hot in places.

  “Care to tell me how you engineered the freak-out on that thing?” Delkin nodded to it.

  Dee lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “I have no idea what happened. They just went crazy.”