Heavy footsteps sounded in the corridor outside, several sets of them. If that was Casmir, he’d brought his buddies.
Rache glanced toward the noise. Tristan tensed, as if he might take advantage and try to escape Rache’s hold. Kim shook her head minutely, hoping he was looking at her and would heed the warning.
But it was Rache who glanced at her and probably noticed the gesture.
Four crushers jogged into engineering, the fading smoke stirring around their dark forms. Casmir poked his head inside before following them in.
Rache rose to his feet, hefting Tristan up with him and twisting his arm behind his back while shifting him like a shield to stand between him and the crushers. Rache adjusted his grip on Tristan’s neck but didn’t release it.
Casmir blinked a few times. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Rache said. “You know this guy? Where’d he come from?”
“Yes, that’s Tristan from Stardust Palace. He’s Princess Nalini’s business partner, and he was also testing my crushers. But, ah, we didn’t invite him along on our kidnapping.” Casmir looked at Kim. “Did we?”
She shook her head, noting that Casmir was walking slowly into engineering. His arms spread, he attempted to look innocent. Since he wasn’t armed and was in pajamas, that might have worked, if not for the crushers walking beside him, staying close enough to protect him if someone got twitchy with a rifle.
“Business partner?” Rache asked skeptically. “Why is some real-estate analyst sabotaging my ship?”
“I don’t know,” Casmir said. “Are you competing in the property-buying sphere currently?”
“No.”
“Perhaps he could explain if you released his neck. He looks like he’s going to pass out.”
“I’m thinking of killing him,” Rache said. “And stop right there. You’re making me mistrustful of your intentions.”
Casmir stopped. “If you kill him, he can’t explain anything.”
“Darn.”
“Rache,” Kim said. “Can you just disarm him and put him in a cell until we figure this out?”
Rache must have been accessing the network and running a face identification program, for he growled low in his throat. “Tristan Tremayne, until very recently a knight of the Kingdom.”
“Yes, but now working for the sultan and the princess,” Casmir said. “No?”
“We can get the main drive back online, sir,” one of the engineers said. “He turned everything off, but it doesn’t look like he had time to damage anything. And we’ve stopped the gas venting out our hull. I think he was hoping someone could track us down with it.”
Rache glared at Kim and Casmir. Though his mask covered his eyes, Kim imagined them very hard.
“We didn’t know he was here,” Kim said, hating the idea of him mistrusting her.
“But since he is here, we should definitely use him,” Casmir said. “And let him talk. And breathe. Tristan, how did you get here?”
Rache loosened his grip enough to let Tristan suck in a few painful breaths.
“I saw that you were being taken prisoner,” Tristan rasped. He glanced at the crushers. “I thought that was what was happening. I snuck aboard the shuttle and have been there for days. I came out looking for you but couldn’t find you in the brig.”
“So you decided to look next for them in engineering?” Rache asked. “Inside my fusion drive’s housing?”
“Once I realized whose ship I was on, I knew I was in over my head. I thought if I could sabotage it, the Fleet could catch up and rescue you.” Tristan’s brow furrowed. “But I think I may have been mistaken that you needed rescuing.”
Kim tugged at her ponytail, feeling awful that he’d done this for her and Casmir. What if they couldn’t talk Rache out of killing him?
“Didn’t you get kicked out of the Kingdom?” Kim asked. “Why would you risk yourself so?”
“To protect good people from being kidnapped by mercenaries?” Tristan gave her an incredulous look, as much of one as he could manage with Rache still gripping his neck. “I had to.”
“Does Nalini know where you are?” Casmir asked. “She’s going to be worried. The sultan too.”
“I turned off my chip so I couldn’t be tracked.”
“Well, this is great. Rache, I can use him for my plan. Or you can use him for your plan. A trained knight isn’t someone to be tossed aside carelessly.” Casmir smiled, clearly hoping to touch on something that would convince Rache to keep Tristan alive.
Seconds passed. Kim wasn’t sure whether to be upset or relieved that she couldn’t see Rache’s face, especially when he spoke next.
“I’ve received word from a bridge officer and my doctor that your trained knight knocked out my chief of engineering.” Rache’s tone was dark, protective, and his fingers tightened again.
“Thoughtful of him to knock her out rather than killing her,” Casmir pointed out.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Tristan bit out, struggling once more to breathe. “I didn’t know her. She opened the locker where I was hiding. I reacted.”
“You reacted by cracking her on the skull,” Rache said. “You could have killed her.”
“Do you wish me to stop this violence, Casmir Dabrowski?” one of the crushers asked—Zee, presumably.
“If any of those things touch me, you’re going out the airlock, Dabrowski,” Rache growled, opting for the surname with his men watching on—or because he was angry.
He looked at Kim—she lifted her chin and gazed back at him, not defiantly but hopefully with an expression that said he was being deliberately obtuse and difficult about this. He didn’t make the same threat to her. He didn’t say anything at all.
Casmir lifted his hands. “I can understand why you’re upset, but you’ve stopped him, and your doctor is taking care of your engineer, right? Murdering him now in cold blood won’t do anything except make you look like a nefarious villain in front of a lady and four impressionable crushers. Zee already has preconceptions about you, thanks to all those dramas he watches, but the other three don’t have opinions yet. And then there’s my plan. I’m realizing Tristan could really help me out. Do you want to hear about my plan?”
“No,” Rache said.
“I do,” Kim said.
She’d deliberately been vague with Rache about what Casmir wanted to do, because she’d thought he wished to keep it a secret. So what was he alluding to now? Something new?
The engines started up again, the faint reverberation emanating from the deck under their feet. Kim willed Rache to accept that his ship was on the mend and that nothing irrevocable had been done. If he killed Tristan in front of her… Casmir was right. It wasn’t in the heat of battle now. It wasn’t self-defense. It would be murder. Again.
A part of her wanted to stalk out so she couldn’t see it if he did it. But a bigger part of her hoped he wouldn’t do it if she was there.
Rache growled, this time in frustration, then shoved Tristan away from him. He might have crashed into Casmir, but Zee stepped out and caught him. Tristan bent forward, inhaling deeply.
“I don’t know if you’ve figured this out yet, Dabrowski,” Rache said, “but I highly doubt you and I are after the same thing on that base. That I’m giving you a ride there is ludicrous.”
Rache looked at Kim one more time, but the only additional words he spoke were for his engineers, ordering them to send him a full report on the damage and the repair estimates. Then he was gone, leaving the two men with rifles still pointing them loosely at Tristan.
“Do you want to lock him up with me in my cabin?” Casmir offered them when they exchanged uncertain looks with each other.
The word lock seemed to appeal to them. They nodded.
Kim walked with Casmir and Tristan to the lift as the guards marched them at gunpoint, though thanks to the way the crushers arranged themselves, the weapons pointed at them rather than Casmir or Kim. She didn’t see Rache
again. It appeared that date night was over.
24
Casmir sat on his bunk with his hands clasped between his knees, listening as Tristan decanted the story from his point of view. And wincing at the knowledge that it was his fault that the poor guy was here. Kim, who’d also joined them in the cabin, sat with her face in her hand as he spoke.
“I knew almost right away that it was a mistake,” Tristan said, “or at least… ill-advised, given my lack of armor and weapons, but when I saw those men marching you at gunpoint to their ship, I reacted. I knew I’d barely have enough time to slip out there, and it was only because of the smoke that I was able to sneak aboard. I thought I could bide my time and find a way to rescue you. But as soon as Nalini told me—” he waved at his chip, “—that it was Rache’s people, I knew I was in over my head. I figured I wasn’t going to make it back to the station alive and that I should at least try to lead others to take down his ship. Maybe if the whole fleet came, they could rescue you.”
Tristan, seated on one of the uncomfortable stools, looked back and forth from Casmir to Kim and then to Zee and the other three crushers that had joined them inside. The rest of the crushers, after some arguing and frustrated comm calls from the two mercenaries who’d escorted them up here, had been ordered into Kim’s cabin. They hadn’t gone into it until Casmir had asked them to please wait inside.
“Are you prisoners?” Tristan asked uncertainly. “It seemed so obvious when I made my snap decision, but upon reflection, I wondered how the men—Rache’s mercenaries—” he said the latter with such distaste that Casmir wondered how he’d kept his tongue civil enough to avoid having his neck snapped down there, “—could have taken them all against your wishes.”
“Well,” Casmir said lightly, “if we weren’t prisoners before, I think we are now.”
Kim shook her head ruefully.
Casmir doubted Rache would be mad with her over this, but he feared he would be blamed. Would Rache still rendezvous with the Dragon? Casmir had sent Bonita coordinates and promised that Rache would give some signal so that she could find his ship. Now, he feared Rache would space him—and Tristan.
“Do you want to explain the rest to him or should I?” Casmir asked her. “It seems we owe him that much after he risked his life to try to rescue us.”
“It was your scheme. You can explain it.”
He bowed to her from his seated position. “You’re kind, as always.”
Casmir gave Tristan the story, emphasizing Kim’s desire to avoid building bioweapons and Jorg’s insistence that she do so, but he didn’t say anything about his own plans, not aloud. Given the night’s events, he assumed Rache had someone monitoring their cabin.
“I wish I’d known,” Tristan said. “Jorg is an utter ass. He’s the reason my career is over. I would have helped hide you on the station, so you wouldn’t have had to join him.” Tristan pointed in the direction of the bridge, but there was no doubt who him was.
“I couldn’t stay on the station,” Kim said. “It’s possible Dubashi already has a bioweapon. If so, someone needs to find it and make sure it can’t be used against the Kingdom.” Her expression was bleak as she touched her own chest.
“Rache agreed to take you to the base?” Tristan started to rub his bruised neck but must have decided it hurt too much, for he turned it into a tender probe. “And help the Kingdom?”
“He was going there anyway.” Kim opened her mouth, as if she would say more, but hesitated.
“To sign on with Dubashi against the Kingdom, I believe.” Casmir looked at her. “Unless he’s changed his mind. I don’t suppose he told you anything different? Or that, due to his undying ardor for you, he’s agreed to stop being villainous?”
The strong, agile, and athletic Tristan… fell off his stool.
Casmir gaped at him. Tristan scrambled to his feet and sat down again before Casmir could reach over to help.
“Was that a joke?” Tristan asked in bewilderment.
“Sort of,” Casmir said, as Kim firmly said, “Yes.”
“You were gone for three hours with him, and there was no ardor?” Casmir raised his eyebrows. “Are you sure? Maybe you’re not that familiar with ardor since you always eschew it.”
“Can you be serious?” Kim asked.
“I wasn’t being entirely unserious. Men change for women. It happens all the time in literature.”
“Not in the literature he reads.”
“A lack of romances on his shelves, I take it?”
“War and revenge novels.”
“Typical. Maybe you should get him a copy of The Masked Spaceflyer.”
“Because that’s… a romance?”
“Oh, one of the best. And it has a hero with a mask. If you don’t buy it for him, I will. I know he loves my gifts.”
Tristan touched his throat again. “I find this conversation disturbing.”
“You probably should have stayed stuffed in that locker on the shuttle,” Casmir said. “Safer for your sanity.”
“I believe you.”
Casmir smiled, held his gaze, and tapped his own temple. He hoped that Tristan would take the hint and bring his chip online so they could message each other without anyone overhearing.
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see if he’s still willing to transfer me—and all of my friends here—over to Bonita’s ship,” Casmir said to Kim.
Tristan gave him a single nod. Casmir sent a request for permission to contact him.
“I’m skeptical that he wants to help you on your quest,” Kim said, “but I’d be shocked if he didn’t want to get rid of you and your posse. The question is whether it’ll be onto Bonita’s ship or out into space to die.”
“I’m hoping we’ve bonded enough that he no longer wishes to kill me,” Casmir said.
The noise that Kim made in the back of her throat wasn’t reassuring.
Tristan, Casmir messaged, you know I agreed to try to kidnap Dubashi and bring him back to the sultan, right? Will you help me?
Yes. I owe the sultan much. Also, Dubashi tried to kidnap Nalini. I would do almost anything to ensure he’s no longer a threat to that family.
Good. Thank you. I have a plan. I’m just thinking about how I can make it work without getting Bonita or the Dragon in trouble. Do you think Dubashi has any idea who you are?
I met his son in person and thwarted his kidnapping attempt, so probably.
Oh? Damn. Casmir drummed his fingers on his thigh. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to make use of Tristan, after all. Dubashi has a bounty on my head. Don’t ask why. It’s an even longer story than the last one. A while back, I was thinking of asking Rache to pretend to bring me to Dubashi’s meeting to turn me in, but that wouldn’t work if Dubashi already knows we have a relationship. Also, it turns out that Dubashi wants Kim now, too, so I bet Rache plans to pretend to turn her in.
Should my head be hurting?
Probably. You weren’t getting much oxygen to it for a while. When you showed up, I thought you, as some unknown ex-knight who could perhaps be believed to have turned to the bounty-hunting life, could pretend to turn me in. But we’d still need another ship. I’m afraid of going in on the Stellar Dragon because it could get Bonita in trouble, and it’s also likely there are records of me flying here and there on it by now. Dubashi might assume that we’re allies instead of enemies.
I’m not sure I fully understand your schemes, but I’ll help you any way I can. Especially since I don’t think I’d be alive now if you and Kim hadn’t intervened.
Casmir thanked him and didn’t point out that his life had only been in danger because he’d tried to help them.
Another message came in, Bonita asking if he was still alive, and he answered it eagerly.
Captain Laser, I’ve missed you!
There was a long pause before her response came. Uh, El Mago. Viggo has missed you.
Only Viggo? Disappointing. Perhaps his enthusiasm had been too much.
We hear
d from Rache, Bonita messaged. He said the Kingdom Fleet is on his ass, and he doesn’t have time to stop to rendezvous with us. To be honest, I’m relieved. I’ve been sweating since you sent that plan to me yesterday. Do you know I’ve got Asger and Bjarke on board? Bjarke would fling himself at Rache with his oversized axe if he caught sight of him, and my ship isn’t so big that guests won’t notice that we’ve docked with another ship.
Ah.
Casmir bit his lip, disappointed that Rache had changed his mind. Was it truly because of the fleet and Tristan’s stunt? Or had he simply decided not to let Casmir go and possibly get in the way of his plans?
What if I can get a ship and come to you? Casmir asked, mentally adjusting his plan. A shuttle.
Could he talk Rache into lending him that one with the lack of identifying marks? Did it have enough fuel to get to the moon base from… wherever they were now? He would have to find out. And convince Rache that it was a good idea. Not daunting at all…
That would be fine, Bonita replied, if Rache doesn’t come with it.
I was thinking of myself, my crusher army, and Tristan. Do tell Asger we’ve found him, will you? If Tristan hasn’t already gotten in touch with him.
I’ll tell him. Asger will be glad he’s alive. You do know things would be simpler if you’d arranged a ride on my ship to start with.
Tell me about it. I had no idea you’d end up going to Dubashi’s base.
Nor did I. I’m hoping nobody looks too closely at us and notices we’re a freighter instead of a warship.
You say Bjarke is with you? A new idea percolated into Casmir’s mind. What was his background story again? He was working undercover as a pirate?
Yes, a pirate accountant for the Druckers in System Cerberus. He was supposedly reporting in to your Knight Headquarters on the goings on in that system. Hey, Casmir, answer something for me, will you?
Always.
If you have knights all over the systems spying on people, how did the Kingdom get caught with its pants down when those ships popped into System Lion to blockade your wormhole gate?
Planet Killer (Star Kingdom Book 6) Page 36
