Asger glanced toward Casmir’s spot, but he’d disappeared behind that ship.
“Is he here?” Asger’s father demanded over the comm, panting now. “Rache?”
“I’m not sure,” Asger said truthfully.
All of the black-armored mercenaries looked the same with their helmets on.
Qin took two steps toward the figures in the smoke—was that Zee?—but paused, looking back at Asger. “Do we attack or…?”
Asger stood torn with indecision. “Casmir said not to. What are they doing? Do you know?”
Qin shook her head.
Asger’s helmet flashed a warning about low oxygen. He growled in frustration. Was there truly a leak? His helmet display didn’t show anything wrong with the air in the bay, other than the contaminants from the smoke grenades.
The smoke cleared a little, and Asger spotted Casmir and Kim jogging toward some of the black-armored men. Not only Zee but numerous crushers were with them. Mercenaries had surrounded them and were pointing guns at their backs.
Damn it, Casmir, are you sure? Asger messaged.
This didn’t look like a ruse.
Casmir didn’t look over at him, but he replied immediately. Yes, yes, it’s fine. I’ll explain later.
Asger gripped his pertundo hard, but he didn’t rush toward the group. At his side, Qin appeared just as uncertain.
Behind him, metal tore with a wrenching squeal. His father finally shoved himself into the bay through the hole he’d half cut and half ripped in the thick double doors.
“William!” he barked. “What are you doing? Do they have Sato?”
“I’m going to check on them,” Asger said, more for Qin than his father’s angry shouts.
He jogged toward the departing mercenaries, but his confusion kept him from committing fully. Maybe Casmir had set this up and wanted to be kidnapped. Was that how he planned to get to Dubashi’s base? With Rache? Or could this be Kim’s plan?
Realization slammed into Asger. Of course. Kim didn’t want to be dragged back to create a bioweapon for Jorg. That had to be it. Why hadn’t they told him about this? Had they thought he would tell his superiors? Or his father? That he would be honor bound to do so?
Asger grimaced, realizing he would feel honor bound.
“Hurry,” his father barked, running up and then passing them. “They’ve got Sato. Why aren’t you fighting?”
The mercenaries deployed more smoke grenades, and the lights went out completely in the bay, leaving only a few glowing indicators on the floor.
Asger’s night vision activated, but it was hard to penetrate the smoke. All he knew was that the group of friends and enemies and crushers was filing into the airlock tube and the shuttle beyond.
Most of the group. A rear guard held back, turning to face Asger’s father. They raised rifles, firing.
Asger lurched into motion. He couldn’t leave his father to fight them all alone.
A grenade, this one launched by hand, sailed straight at Asger. He whipped his pertundo across and knocked it aside before it hit him and exploded in the air above his head. The shockwave rattled him again, but he kept going. Qin fired at the armored figures.
One of her anti-tank rounds exploded in the middle of the group, and two mercenaries went flying. Shrapnel hammered into the side of the bay—and the airlock and airlock tube. A new alarm sounded, warning of a rupture.
“Airlock Eight is being sealed off,” the computer voice announced. “We have an external breach. Airlock Eight is being sealed off.”
The last of the mercenaries helped their comrades to their feet and rushed for the tube. A red light flashed on the wall above the airlock. The heavy hatch started to swing shut.
One of the mercenaries caught it and held it open for his comrades. The remaining men slipped through. The mercenary released it, so it would close, but Asger’s father had reached it. He caught the door, grunting as he pushed it open, and slipped through.
Startled, Asger was an instant too late in lunging after him. The hatch clanged shut before he could grab it.
He grabbed the latch and started to pull but caught himself as the sirens screeched all around him. Outside a porthole, he saw the tube flapping, already detached. The mercenaries couldn’t have all made it across, but the shuttle was taking off. Reluctantly, Asger let go of the hatch. If he succeeded in forcing it open, it would turn the whole bay into a vacuum.
Instead, he ran to the porthole, his faceplate clunking against it as he tried to spot his father. He saw mercenaries hanging onto the end of the tube, their legs floating free, as it was retracted into the storage around the shuttle’s airlock chamber. Several other mercenaries weren’t holding onto anything. They must have blown free.
Asger was on the verge of hoping station security would be able to round them up when they fired jet boots and steered at top speed toward the shuttle.
It was turning so that it could head for the tunnel leading out of the asteroid, so they had time to catch up. Where was Rache’s ship? Inside the asteroid, or was the station firing external defenses from the outside?
A couple of the mercenaries remaining in the shuttle’s airlock helped pull their people in. Casmir and Kim and all those crushers had to already be on there. They’d been ahead of the others. Walking at gunpoint.
The shuttle fired a missile, and Asger jumped, fearing it was heading straight at him. But it slammed into another shuttle docked farther down the bay. He groaned. That was the Kingdom shuttle his father had flown here.
Had he been inside of it? Or on his way there? The missile did a spectacular job of blowing the engine compartment to shreds without damaging the airlock or the side of the station.
Father? Asger tried to message him. Are you… safe?
When he didn’t get an answer, he tried the comm. Nothing.
Asger twisted his head, looking for his father’s galaxy suit. What if the mercenaries had already killed him?
After long seconds of searching the well-lit space outside and not seeing him, Asger slumped and dropped his head. He didn’t know if he loved his father—there were times he was positive he didn’t like him—but he hadn’t wanted him to die. Especially if this was some idiotic ruse.
Qin started toward Asger—he was leaning against a porthole, his head slumped to his chest—but jumped, almost firing her Brockinger when drones flew into the bay, whirring over some of the parked ships. But she realized they weren’t a threat. They zipped to the blackened wall near the airlock and started oozing a foam patch material.
Right, the hull breach. Qin wondered if they could get that hatch open and chase after the shuttle. Or even if they should.
She wasn’t positive what she had witnessed, but she was worried since Bjarke had gone out after the mercenaries and hadn’t come back. Had he made it to their shuttle and was he even now fighting them? Or was he floating around out there in his galaxy suit, injured or unconscious? One of the mercenaries could have easily shot him when he sprang out after them.
Before Qin resumed her jog to Asger, Bonita climbed through the hole in the door that Bjarke had made. She hobbled into the bay, grimacing and gripping her hip. The sirens stopped complaining, and the red emergency lighting came back on, showing Bonita’s hair half fallen—torn?—out of her usual braid, and the seam partially undone at the collar of her galaxy suit.
After glancing at Asger to make sure he wasn’t on the verge of throwing himself out the airlock to give chase, Qin rushed to Bonita in case she needed help. She looked like she had been mugged.
What if someone was after her? Qin peered into the corridor, but nobody was back there. Even the security android had disappeared at some point. Because of that leak? An android wouldn’t have been affected.
Was there even a leak? Her helmet display said the air was a little thin, after the breach, but that it was breathable. The drones had already finished with the temporary repairs. She didn’t see anything about a toxic substance, or any extraneous sub
stances at all, in the air.
“Are you all right?” Qin reached out but didn’t grip Bonita, afraid to hurt her further. “Did Bjarke hit you?”
Indignation burned in Qin’s chest. That bastard had yelled at Asger in front of everyone, then turned whatever that mercenary incursion had been into a worse snarl than it should have been. Not that she’d helped with that. She’d gotten a message from Casmir to hide in the Dragon and stay away from the intruders, and she would have trusted him and done so if Asger hadn’t charged. She’d been terrified for him.
Now she turned that worry onto Bonita. If Bjarke had hurt her, Qin would strangle him herself.
“What? No, that’s not it.” Bonita straightened, moving her hand from her hip, though she didn’t quite manage to smooth the grimace from her face. “I will blame him for leaving in a hurry when he heard…” Bonita looked toward the airlock, the drones tidying up the last of their foam patch, the scorch marks on the deck, the red emergency lights shining down. “Yeah, that’s what he must have heard. He rushed off so quickly, I lost my balance and got tangled in my suit, which was in a different more compromising position at the time. I wasn’t holding on to anything but him, you see.”
“Holding on to… him?” Qin couldn’t help but curl a lip as she did begin to see. And wished she hadn’t. “You were having sex? With him?”
“In a lift, yes. Which I do not recommend when you get older and have less padding over your bones.” Her hand strayed to her hip again. “Not as bad as the shower, I suppose. It wasn’t slick. In most places.” The grimace turned into a quick smirk.
“Ew.”
Bonita pointed at Qin. “Just uncurl that lip of yours. It’s making you look like a snaggle-toothed tiger.”
Qin forced her lip to lower and hide the fang it had revealed. “I didn’t think you would—I mean, I guess I knew you were going to distract him, but I didn’t think you were the type to…”
Qin trailed off, not wanting to insult her captain, employer, and friend. Better to drop it.
“Use sex to get what I want from a man?” Bonita suggested.
Qin shrugged. “Yes.”
“I wasn’t planning to—I was going to show him the lab, like I said—but then he tried to use sex, or at least kisses, to get what he wanted from me. He was manipulating me so I would tell him where Kim really was. So I figured it was fair for me to distract him whatever way was easiest. In hindsight, I should have gotten him farther away from this bay so he couldn’t charge back so readily. But by the time we got to the lift, I’m not sure either of us was manipulating the other anymore. I think we were just being horny.” Bonita pointed at her. “Your lip is curled again, and your fang is sticking out.”
“Sorry.” Qin forced her lip down. “It’s my favorite one.”
“Uh huh.”
“And I don’t like him. Or trust him, even if he is a knight.”
Bonita looked around the bay, her gaze settling on Asger. “Where is Bjarke?”
Qin didn’t like the way Asger appeared to be mourning the loss of a family member. Had he seen the mercenaries shoot Bjarke? Blow him into pieces outside the airlock?
“He tried to go after the mercenaries,” Qin said. “I’m not sure he made it to their shuttle. There was an explosion, and their airlock tube ripped. I think Casmir and Kim made it, but—”
“Casmir and Kim were down here?”
“Yes. The mercenaries marched them and the crushers out at gunpoint.”
“Oh. Right. That was why I was distracting Bjarke. Of course. So they could be, uh, kidnapped.” Bonita frowned at Qin. “That was Rache, wasn’t it? Why did you fight his men? Or was that only Asger?”
“It was really only Bjarke. Asger started to but paused when Casmir told him not to. Then Bjarke burst in—” Qin pointed at the mangled hole in the door, “—and ordered Asger to get Rache. I don’t know how he knew Rache was here or… was that the station firing at the Fedallah?”
She’d heard some of the words that had come over Asger’s comm helmet, but it had been chaotic then, with the sirens wailing, and even her keen ears hadn’t caught everything. But the voice on the station comm had announced they were defending against someone.
“I don’t know,” Bonita said. “I was detained.”
Qin, convinced there wasn’t truly a leak, pushed her helmet back and scratched her head. “I think everything would have worked out fine for them if station security hadn’t started firing at Rache’s warship. I thought it was invisible to scanners. What if that shuttle can’t even get back to it? I wish I knew what was happening out there.”
“Me too. Maybe Viggo can update us—he should have some sensor range, even buried in this asteroid.” Bonita headed for the cargo ramp, limping noticeably.
Qin reached out a hand in case she wanted to lean on her, but Bonita had always been proud, and she waved away the offer.
“I didn’t see the fight,” Bonita added, wincing again as she maneuvered up the ramp. She lowered her voice. “Was it… believable? In case someone gets the camera footage later? Someone royal?”
“Bjarke made it look believable, I think. So did Asger and I, inadvertently.”
Qin looked toward Asger. He’d stepped away from the porthole, and she could make out that he was murmuring to someone on his helmet comm. Security? Qin was surprised they hadn’t shown up yet, but maybe the supposed leak was keeping them out. Or they were busy firing at that shuttle and the Fedallah. Qin winced, imagining Kim and Casmir caught in the middle of all that.
She would join Asger and make sure he was all right after she got Bonita settled into the ship.
They were almost to the top of the ramp when the full lights came back on, and the doors rose. All except the one Bjarke had torn his way through. It was too damaged to slide into its pocket and only made it part way up. A security team ducked under it to enter.
Qin paused and looked toward the yacht Tristan had ducked into when the gas leak had been announced. She was surprised he hadn’t come out yet. He should have seen by now that the air was clear. Though maybe it was best that he was slow to react. The sultan wouldn’t know that Casmir had arranged his own kidnapping and might send Tristan and his security people after the mercenaries in a warship. To get the creator of his crushers back.
“Greetings, Bonita,” Viggo said as they entered the cargo hold. “Are you injured?”
“Mostly my pride.” Bonita slumped against a crate. “I hope there wasn’t a camera in that lift.”
“I’m sure station security has other things it’s worried about now,” Qin said. “Do you want help to sickbay? Or your cabin?”
Bonita lifted a hand. “Viggo, can you fill me in on what’s going on out there? Are you able to sense Rache’s warship?”
“The Fedallah? No. But the station apparently does, because all of the cannons mounted on the exterior of the asteroid have been firing at something for the last ten minutes. If it’s Rache’s warship, someone either tagged it with a locator beacon, or these people have figured out how to detect a ship through its slydar hull.”
“They’re still firing at it now?”
“Yes. If it is a ship, it’s engaged in evasive maneuvers. The cannons keep changing their aim. It does appear that they only have one target, but that may change.”
“What do you mean?” Qin asked, her insides knotting.
“My sensors show the mercenary shuttle now exiting the mouth of the asteroid. It’s zigzagging its path and flying into the area where the station cannons are firing.”
Bonita dropped her hands to her knees. “Those idiots are going to get themselves killed. What were they thinking?”
That they didn’t want to be put to use building horrible weapons for their government, Qin thought. She could understand that, but she wished Casmir and Kim had explained the plan better to her and Bonita. They might have done more to help. And they should have told Asger, even if she could see why they hadn’t. He might have told his father and
his superiors.
“And where is Bjarke, damn it?” Bonita thumped her fist on her thigh. “Tell me they didn’t blow him away. If I’d known, I would have tried harder to keep him from leaving. If they’d told me exactly what they were doing…”
“Maybe your new hobby with Bjarke made them uncertain that they could.” Qin realized Asger wasn’t the only one who might have sided with Bjarke, or at least tipped him off.
“My new hobby of having sex? That hardly makes me untrustworthy.”
“It kind of seemed like your loyalties were divided before.” Qin waved toward the level above where they’d met with Casmir.
“I just didn’t want to lie to him. I…” Bonita straightened, throwing up her hands in frustration.
A faint clanging reached Qin’s ears. She walked back out on the ramp. Was that Asger?
He was still next to the porthole, pacing and talking on the comm, but he stopped and whirled toward the airlock hatch. The clanging sounded again. Someone knocking… from the other side.
Asger tapped a control panel coated with soot from numerous explosions. Nothing happened.
He grabbed the manual lever on the hatch and pulled, muscles straining. Qin hopped off the ramp, intending to help him, but the seal broke with a hiss, and Bjarke stumbled in. The outer airlock hatch was apparently still working and secure behind him.
Bjarke slapped his helmet back as Asger lunged, catching him by the shoulders. Bjarke gasped for air.
“What happened?” Asger blurted.
Bjarke sucked in a few more breaths before recovering enough to pin Asger with a glare. “You tell me. You let them walk out with Sato and Dabrowski.”
“There were too many of them to stop them,” Asger said evenly.
“You didn’t even try. You call that fighting?” Bjarke pointed at something outside the bay. “That bastard blew up my shuttle on his way out. Did you see that?”
Asger dropped his hands and stepped back from his father, his face turning to a stony mask.
Qin wanted to reach out and comfort him with one hand and punch Bjarke with the other.
Planet Killer (Star Kingdom Book 6) Page 27
