by Jaleta Clegg
"I can pay you more than they can."
"Even if I believed you, Captain, I doubt you could. Money, maybe. But if I don't deliver you, like I agreed, then they won't trust me anymore. If they don't trust me, I become a liability."
"And they'll kill you." I sighed. "So you get paid to kidnap me for them. And in return they let you live. Sounds like a perfectly reasonable business deal."
"There's no need to be sarcastic. And you're right, it's purely business. Nothing personal."
"Except it's my life you're ruining."
"You don't seem too upset about it."
I shrugged.
He cocked his head, studying me. "Most women in your position would be begging, crying, pleading, promising me whatever it took to get me to let them go."
"It wouldn't work, would it?"
He laughed. "It's fun to let them think it might."
I twisted my hands in my cuffs, not joining him in his laugh. It was a cruel joke to play. I didn't see any humor in it.
My hands were swollen and halfway numb. "If I promise to behave, is there any chance you might take the cuffs off for a while?"
"Do I look stupid to you? If I believed even a quarter of the stories about you, I should have you in chains and drugged besides. Frankly, I don't see how you could be much of a threat to anyone. But, in the interest of keeping my head intact, I'm not taking chances. Sorry. The cuffs stay."
"Then could you loosen them?"
He shook his head. "You aren't pathetic enough yet, Dace. Keep trying."
I closed my eyes, leaning my head on the smooth wall. Heat from outside seeped through the plascrete. "Why don't you just shoot me and save them the trouble?"
"Because I'm being paid to deliver you alive and in mostly one piece. If you really want, you could try to escape. Then I could knock you around a bit. If it would make you feel more like a prisoner."
I opened my eyes again. "Do I look stupid to you? I'd rather just skip the beatings. They usually aren't much fun for the person being beaten."
"You really disappoint me. I was expecting more of a fight from you."
"Take the cuffs off and send most of your goons home. I like better odds."
"I'm almost tempted. Almost." He tossed a couple of water pouches and a ration bar at me. "Enjoy your dinner."
The door slammed shut behind him. I heard the bolt slide home on the other side. I sighed and picked up my meager dinner.
Why was I even bothering to try? It was hopeless. I had so many enemies, it was a wonder I had even made it this far from Shangrila. Jasyn and Clark were better off without me, although I doubted Jasyn would ever believe it. I was torn between wanting them to storm the building and rescue me or having them fly far away where they would be safe. I didn't want to be someone's prisoner or slave. I didn't want to be locked up here. I wanted to be on my ship. I wasn't going to get what I wanted. The best I could hope for was that they would leave the others alone. Let them take their revenge on me, but leave the others alone.
I was squeezing the ration bar to crumbs. I made myself relax. Right then, I wanted to believe in something, the Spirit of Space, or whatever God was. I wanted some omniscient force to tell me everything was going to work out. I wanted something to pray to, something to beg safety from, at least for the others. Let me pay whatever price was necessary to buy safety for the others. But I didn't have the faith. I didn't know how.
I picked open the wrapper and ate the crumbs inside. I drank the water and wished for more. I curled up on the hard floor and pretended to sleep.
The door slammed against the wall with a loud crack. I sat, rubbing my eyes. This time I hadn't been dreaming, at least nothing I remembered.
The man was standing there, but there was no humor in his eyes, not this time. He looked hard and mean. There were others behind him, dark shapes in the dim hallway.
"Get up," he said.
I didn't move fast enough, still muzzy from sleep. He crossed the room and jerked me to my feet. He held me up by my arm and marched me to the door. One of the dark shadows lifted a light and aimed it into my face. I squinted and tried to raise my hands. The man knocked them back down.
"It's her," a man's voice spoke from behind the light. The light dropped. Hands reached for me from the shadows.
The men in the hall were all fuzzy and indistinct. It was just like too many of my nightmares. But the pain in my arm where my kidnapper was holding me was all too real. He jerked me back into the room, out of the reach of the gray hands.
"Payment first," he said. "You're two days late. I want extra for that."
"Was she any trouble?" The voice had a weird hiss to it. The men in the hall wore personal distorter fields. They definitely didn't want to be recognized. Whoever they were. I shivered. It took lots of money and lots of illegal connections to get distorter fields.
"Doesn't matter if she was trouble or not," my captor said. "It was our deal."
"We're renegotiating," the hissing voice said. "Hand her over, McKane, and we let you live."
His name was McKane. It didn't make any difference. He passed some signal. The hall was suddenly full of his goons.
"You give me my payment, as agreed, or the authorities will find your bodies tomorrow." He pulled me up against him.
The shadow figure chuckled. "Just testing you, McKane. Give him the credit chip, Largo."
"Hand it to my second," McKane said, jerking his head towards goon number one. "Check it, Karson."
Karson, goon number one, took the credit chip and disappeared down the hall. The rest of us stayed where we were. The shadows watched. McKane held me like a shield. I shifted my leg, easing a cramp. McKane shook me, warning to hold still. I sighed but stood still. I would only get shot if I tried something.
"It's good, McKane," Karson said from behind the shadow men.
McKane shoved me forward. I stumbled and almost fell. The shadow man in front, the only one who had talked, bent to grab me. I rolled past him, kicking at his legs. I scrambled up, trying to run.
McKane's goons moved out of my way. I wasn't their problem anymore. I staggered down the hall.
One of the shadow men caught me by my arm. The personal distorter field sparked and cracked at the contact. I let him swing me around, using the momentum to bring my fist up against his head. He blocked my swing and hit me back. I fell against the wall. He kicked me before I could move away.
I fought back with everything I had. McKane and his goons didn't try to interfere. I was facing the four wearing distorter fields. But they had me at a disadvantage. The fields kept my blows from really connecting. They finally clubbed me into submission.
One of them grabbed my face, ignoring the shower of tiny sparks jumping from his fingers. "That wasn't very smart, but it was expected." He let go of my face. He snapped his fingers at one of the other shadows. "Dose her," he ordered.
I threw myself to one side, trying to crawl away. With my hands locked in cuffs and going numb, I didn't make it far. One of them kicked me, knocking me into the wall and leaving me gasping for breath. I heard a snap and felt a sharp pain in my arm. I tried to scream. I couldn't. I lay limp.
"Get up," the first shadow ordered me.
I found myself getting to my feet. The one who had drugged me grabbed my arm. The world went fuzzy and gray as they wrapped me in a distorter cloak. Sounds echoed strangely around me. Another man took my other arm. The two of them walked me out of the building.
It was night outside. The air smelled of engine grease. We weren't far from the port. Maybe I could break free and get to the Phoenix.
And maybe I'd learn to fly like a bird. I couldn't have walked two steps without their help. My legs were like rubber.
We walked up to a cargo transport. An open crate waited near a stack of sealed ones. They pushed me up to it.
"Get in," the leader ordered.
I shook my head and tried to back away. They shoved me forward. I stumbled and fell over the open edge. I lande
d inside the crate. They shoved my feet in and slammed the lid shut.
I was tangled in the cloak. I clawed my way free and tried to bang on the lid of the crate. I could barely move. It was hot in the crate. I couldn't breathe. I panicked, hammering at the lid as hard as I could.
The cargo hauler lurched into motion, throwing me against the side of the crate. The vibration rattled my teeth. Whatever drug they'd given me made me weak and slow. I kept banging, hoping someone would hear.
The crate seemed to get smaller and smaller. I gasped for breath, trying to suck in air that seemed too thick to breathe. I slammed myself against the sides of the crate, over and over.
The cargo hauler shuddered to a stop.
"Let me out!" I tried to shout. It came out a thin whimper. I beat on the sides of the crate, my hands weak and numb.
The crate shifted to one side, swinging and swooping. I was slammed against the side, knocking my head so hard I saw stars. I clutched at nothing, trying to keep from slamming into anything else. The crate dropped suddenly, landing somewhere with a solid thump. I crouched in the bottom, trying to find enough strength to fight my way free when the lid was opened.
Time crawled past. I found myself dozing off. The air in the crate felt too thick and tasted sour. I crouched on my knees and ignored the spreading numbness in my legs.
The crate began to vibrate. I clutched at the box, bracing myself. It wasn't the crate. I was on a ship that was lifting off. I felt the rumble of sublight engines as they pushed the ship free of the planet. I knew when we left atmosphere, I felt the shift in vibrations. The ship picked up speed.
There was a moment of disorientation, when the universe felt as if it were turning inside out around me. Jump point. I sank to the bottom of the crate as we passed into hyperspace. There was no way Jasyn and Clark would find me now.
I gave in to despair and cried, sobbing into the cloak. My only comfort was that they had left my ship and the others alone. At least I hoped they had.
Chapter 19
"So, where is she?" Beryn leaned against the wall, arms folded. "The ship's ready to fly."
"If she just left by herself, she would have been back by now," Clark said.
"We've looked everywhere we can," Beryn said. "The police aren't going to help us."
He didn't need to say that the police wouldn't help mostly because they were spacers. They weren't citizens of Tireo. And everyone knew that spacers were notorious for disappearing, they couldn't be trusted.
"Then we wait," Jasyn said. "And keep looking."
"Until when?" Beryn waited for her answer.
Jasyn sat at the table, staring down at her hands.
"Leave her alone, Beryn," Ginni said. "Dace can't help what she gets into. She doesn't do it on purpose."
"I know," Beryn said. "But how do we know Dace is even still on the planet? How long do we keep looking here?"
"Where else is there to look?" Jasyn asked. "We don't have any idea who has her this time."
"If they were after money, we should have gotten a ransom note by now," Clark said. "There wasn't anything in the hospital records or the police reports I could hack. No mention of her anywhere. I don't know where else to look, Jasyn."
"There are hundreds of warehouses," Ginni said. "Darus has walked past almost all of them by now."
"We could break into the ones near where they found the coupling unit," Beryn suggested.
"And get ourselves arrested," Jasyn said. She shook her head. "We won't do Dace any good if we're locked up in jail here. We only do what we can without getting caught."
"Now you're starting to sound like her," Clark said, but he said it with a smile. "Speaking of Darus, anyone know where he is this time?"
"He's coming up the ramp," Jasyn said.
Darus walked slowly, his head down. He hadn't slept for the last two days and it showed. He stopped by the table next to Jasyn. He held his hand over the tabletop and slowly opened it. A rope of gold slithered free and fell to the table. A tiny cat was curled on the chain, a look of sly mischief on its face. The clasp on the necklace was broken.
"I found it outside one of the warehouses. It's hers. I should know, I gave it to her."
"Then she must be somewhere close to where you found it," Ginni said.
Darus shook his head. "There are at least a dozen possible buildings. It would take us weeks to search them all."
"Where's Ghost?" Twyla asked as she came into the main area of the ship. She stopped at the bottom of the short flight of steps up to the back cabins. She didn't need to be an empath to read the emotions in the room. "Bad news?"
"When is it ever anything else where Dace is concerned?" Clark sighed. "Darus may have narrowed down her location, but it's still too big. We need more information and there just isn't any."
"We could go to the Patrol, ask Lowell for help," Twyla suggested. "Has anyone seen the cat? She hasn't begged me for food for two days."
"She showed up a couple of hours ago," Ginni said. "She was filthy. I washed her off. She's been hiding in the access hatches ever since."
"Going to Lowell isn't possible," Clark said. "From what I could get out of the Patrol database, he's been pushed into a corner. He can't help."
"Anyone else have any suggestions?" Jasyn asked. "We've run out of options."
"Dace had a card in her things that might help," Ginni said. "I only looked because I was trying to help." She went into Dace's cabin.
Ginni came back a moment later with a small card in her hand. She put it on the table.
Beryn picked it up. "Major Gerald Smith, code seven four alpha." He turned the card over. "That's all."
"I thought it might be someone she knew," Ginni said. "I thought maybe she was involved with something else."
"She promised she was through," Jasyn said.
"It looks like she's had it a while," Beryn said, turning the card over in his fingers.
"It's an old code," Darus said. "One of Lowell's."
He held out his hand for the card. Beryn handed it to him.
"It's an emergency aid code," Darus explained. "Anyone showing up in a Patrol base asking for Major Gerald Smith would receive help from Lowell's agents. Lowell must have given this to her a while back. He changes that code every year or so." He set the card on the table next to the broken necklace.
"Is it still any good?" Ginni asked. "If we go into the Patrol office here, will it get us any help?"
Clark shook his head. "Lowell doesn't have a network anymore. I doubt he has any people here."
"It might," Darus said, cutting Clark off. "The code underneath should get us something from the Patrol. Dace's name might help. Lowell did make her an admiral." He stood, taking the card off the table.
"I'm going with you," Ginni said to Darus.
"Take a com and check in," Jasyn said. "We don't want to lose anyone else."
"What help will the Patrol be?" Twyla asked.
"Does it matter?" Darus answered. "It's at least something."
"And we don't have anything else," Jasyn said. "Go, Darus. Maybe you'll have better luck than Beryn did with the local police."
"You would mention that," Beryn muttered. "Wait," he added urgently. "I may have something else."
Darus and Ginni stopped, halfway out the hatch.
"It may be nothing," Beryn said, suddenly self conscious. "It's just last week, in the bar, there was a woman."
"Does Paltronis know?" Twyla asked.
"I just went to get away for a while," Beryn said defensively. "She came up to me. She wanted to know what ship I was from. She was full of questions. I thought she was just looking for a customer." His face went red. "But she got upset when I said that. She looked too high class to be working the dockside bars. She didn't pay any attention to anyone else. She was after me."
"What did you tell her?" Jasyn asked.
"Nothing," Beryn said. "I swear. I told her nothing. She gave me the creeps. I left her there."
"You
think someone may have been paying her to find us?" Clark asked.
"It's possible," Beryn answered.
"What was her name?" Jasyn asked.
Beryn shook his head. "I can't remember. But she acted like a regular customer at the bar. At least the bartender seemed to know her."
"Which bar?" Clark asked.
"The Black Pearl?" Beryn shook his head again. "I don't remember the name, but I could find it again."
Clark glanced outside. It was midafternoon.
"We'll go talk to the Patrol," Darus said. "We'll be back before dark."
Clark nodded. "We should have a plan by the time you get back. Tell me everything you can remember about her, Beryn."
* * *
The Patrol building was not as huge and imposing as the other buildings around it. It looked older, shabby around the edges. The facade was crumbling, exposing the plascrete underneath. Darus and Ginni walked up the chipped steps and pushed open the big front door.
The lobby was cool and dim. The main color was a washed out green. The room was plain, just a big empty space with a reception desk manned by a harried young woman. She glanced up at them and shuffled papers out of her way.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
Darus and Ginni crossed the empty floor to her desk before they answered.
"We're looking for a Major Gerald Smith," Darus said. "He was supposed to be posted here."
"There isn't anyone here by that name. With only eighty three people assigned here, I should know."
"Would you check anyway, please?" Darus leaned on the desk.
Ginni pretended she didn't see the five credit note Darus passed the woman.
"I can run a check for him," she said. "It may take a moment. What was the name again?"
"Major Gerald Smith."
She typed the name. She hit the enter button and waited. "Is he a relative of yours?" she asked.
"Something like that," Darus answered.
Her computer beeped. She looked at the screen. Her face went pale. She leaned closer. "That isn't possible," she whispered. She scrolled through whatever entry was on her screen. She looked back up at Darus. She looked scared. "Who are you?"
"Why do you want to know?"
