by R. M. Olson
He barely had time to realize Jez had already used her code to hit the doors on the hangar-bay airlock open when the ship shot forward. He lost his balance and his footing as he was flung backwards, and gritted his teeth against the inevitable impact with the damn deck—
And then someone caught him, strong arms arresting his fall and holding him steady, and instead of the hard deck, the ship’s momentum shoved him against someone’s warm chest.
“Easy there,” came Ivan’s low, slightly-amused voice in his ear, his short-cropped beard brushing against Tae’s cheek. “You alright?”
A small, pleasant shiver ran through Tae’s body, his tight muscles relaxing at the warmth of Ivan’s arms around him, and he found for some reason he was smiling.
Even aside from keeping him from landing face first on the damn deck, like he seemed to do every time Jez decided to go somewhere in a hurry, something about Ivan did that to him.
Which was dangerous. He damn well knew better.
“Yeah,” he said after a moment, when he realized he hadn’t actually answered Ivan’s question. “Yeah, I’m—I’m fine. Thanks.”
He wasn’t entirely sure why his legs had gone slightly shaky, but it was probably just relief that for once in his life, he wasn’t going to have a new set of bruises from Jez’s takeoff.
The ship steadied on course, and at last, cautiously, Ivan loosened his arms from around Tae.
Tae took a deep breath, strangely reluctant to step away.
“Hey tech-head!” Jez sauntered back onto the main deck, grinning. “You and Ivan decide to do this instead of making out on the couch, like last time I wasn’t here to supervise?”
He scowled at her, straightening quickly. “For the millionth time, Jez, that was a damn distraction.”
She gave a snort of laughter. “Yeah? Who was more distracted, you or Ivan?”
“Jez—”
She snickered and dropped into one of the seats, hitting the button to release the mag lock and tipping it back so it balanced on two legs. She leaned back with her hands behind her head, and he glared at her.
“Anyways,” she said, “find anything on that chip I got you?”
“If I could work without you bloody well trying to knock me onto my face every time you get into the cockpit—” he muttered.
She shrugged. “Hey, thought you’d be glad I got you out without getting us shot at. Anyways, that bastard Masha said to get us to some nice, safe coordinates so she could talk with Olyessa over the com, which I did. So not sure what you’re complaining about.”
“Speaking of getting shot at,” said Galina, releasing her restraints, “you need to get that arm seen to.” She stood and turned towards the cupboard with the first-aid kit.
Jez gave Galina a wink. “Hey Galya, you can look at any part of me you—”
“Jez—” said Tae through his teeth.
Ysbel came through the door a few moments later. With her shaved head and muscular build, she would have looked intimidating even if you didn’t know she was a mass murderer. “I heard our lunatic pilot talking in here, so I assumed it was safe to stand up,” she grumbled.
“Jez?” Lev stepped out onto the deck behind Ysbel, his scholarly air and slightly-disheveled appearance forming a stark contrast to that of the demolitions expert. Tae caught the slight stiffening in his posture at the sight of Galina, but to his credit, it disappeared almost as quickly as it came. “Are you—”
Galina looked up from where she was bending over Jez’s injured arm and shook her head, still looking concerned. “She says she’s fine, but—”
Lev smiled reluctantly. “Ah. I understand.”
Jez had stiffened as well when Lev entered, and was clearly avoiding his eyes.
Lev sighed. “Masha is going over some of the final aspects of our plan, or at least, that’s what she told me. I’m fairly certain she knows we want to talk without her, and it sounds like she’s willing to respect that, for the moment, at least.” He paused. “Jez. Did you get the information?”
“Yep,” Jez drawled. “Who do you think you’re dealing with, genius-boy?”
“Good.” There was a long pause, and then Lev turned with an obvious effort to Galina. “Galina. Did everything go alright on your end?”
She quirked an eyebrow at him, but nodded. “And I’m not nearly as stoic as Jez, so you can believe me, I’d tell you.”
“Good. That’s good. I’m glad things worked out. And we’re very glad to have you on board,” he said, with a sort of dogged politeness.
There was another moment of awkward silence, and Tae exchanged glances with Ysbel.
Finally, Lev shook his head and took a seat at the table. “Alright. So. What have we found out so far?”
Tae sighed. “Nothing, yet. I’m just pulling it up now.”
“Alright. While you do that, let’s go over what we do know, so Galina is up to speed.” He paused a moment. “Masha’s plan, at least what she’s told us of it, is pretty simple. Grigory’s going to come after us. She’s ensured that. His finances are hurting right now—he banked a great deal on being able to pull off the coup, and when we stopped him, and killed a large percentage of his people in the government, it dealt him a serious blow. So he won’t be able to ignore another threat to his income. And as long as we have the patronage of Olyessa Janovik, he won’t dare simply gun us down.”
He paused a moment.
Tae glared down at his holoscreen as he worked his way through the security on the chip Jez had copied onto her com, trying to ignore the sick feeling in his chest.
It seemed like every time someone mentioned Masha these days, that same empty nausea rose inside him.
She’d betrayed them.
They’d all trusted her, and she’d lied to all of them, and set all of them up, but—well, but somehow it felt far too personal.
Because he’d honestly thought that no matter what happened, no matter how much she wanted something—she wouldn’t do something to hurt them.
And instead—instead, she’d listened to the plans that they told her in full confidence, and worked against them. She’d withheld information that had almost gotten all of them killed. And she’d set them up. They’d killed fifty people, without realizing what they were doing. He’d been trying to bloody well save lives, and instead, they’d killed fifty people. And the sickest part of it was, those people had died just so Masha could give Grigory a black eye, so he’d come after them, and the crew would have to help her with this job.
“The pleasure houses?” said Galina at last. “That’s why you brought me along, right?” There was a hard edge to her voice, and Tae glanced up.
Jez put an arm around Galina, and was watching her with a hint of concern.
Galina’s expression was like stone.
“Yes,” said Lev. “The pleasure houses. The majority of Grigory’s income derives from there. We’re going to set up a fake pleasure house in competition to his, convince him to invest his funds in the hope that he can take over the loan and then call it and ruin us, and then, once his funds are in the account Tae sets up—” he spread his hands. “He’ll lose everything.”
“That’s not all, though,” said Galina in that hard, quiet voice. “That’s not the only thing we’re doing. We’re taking down the damn pleasure planet itself, right? Because that’s the whole reason I agreed to this.”
Lev gave her a small smile. “Yes. As I mentioned, I’ve studied Grigory’s finances in depth. If we can convince him to invest in our fake house, he’ll have to leverage his properties in order to do so. And the only assets he can easily leverage that would give him the funds he’d need are his pleasure houses. Once he’s been taken down, he’ll lose them, and if Grigory’s pleasure houses go under, the entire place will implode.”
“Good,” said Galina quietly. “It’s about time.”
Jez pulled Galina in a little tighter and whispered something in her ear, her face still cut with concern. Galina turned to her with
a small smile, and Jez kissed her softly.
Lev noticeably avoided looking at them. “Tae,” he said. “Did you get into the chip?”
Tae nodded, and hit a button on his com. “I just sent the information through to the rest of you.” He paused. “I don’t know why Masha wanted it so badly. There’s not a lot here that seems relevant. The bureaucrat Jez conned must have had connections with Olyessa, like Masha suspected—not surprising, since he was on Grigory’s kill-list. We have her entire organizational structure here,” he tapped his holoscreen and spread his fingers, enlarging the screen. “And then here,” he swiped across to a new screen, “we have intel on all of Olyessa’s big players, at least the ones connected with the government. But why we’d need to know this for the job we’re pulling—” He trailed off, shaking his head.
Ivan pulled up his own holoscreen and looked down at it, frowning. His black hair curled across his forehead, and his short-cropped beard stood out against his olive complexion, a small line creasing between his eyebrows, but his face still held the mild good humour and cultured air had struck Tae when he’d first met Ivan in prison, and Ivan had stepped in to save Tae from the prisoner who’d been intent on beating the hell out of him.
Tae dropped his eyes quickly. He’d been watching Ivan longer than he’d meant to.
At last Ivan glanced up. “Lev, you probably have more inside information than I do, since you were working in the government until a year or so ago. But my family’s in government, and I grew up hearing about who was in charge of what, and who was in or out of favour. This name right here, Veronika—” he tapped a name in the top of one column, “she’s been rising in the ranks for some time now. She’s the head of a cabal that don’t always agree with the administration, so it doesn’t surprise me that she’s working with Olyessa rather than Grigory. Which means, they’ll be a power struggle within the government soon. It’s certainly useful information.”
Lev nodded thoughtfully. “I hadn’t been thinking of the political side of things, but you’re right. Olyessa’s mafia outfit has always been Grigory’s rival, but she’s never had the influence to be much of a threat. Until we pulled that job on Vitali, of course. If her people are gaining power, that will tell us something about her position, and by implication, her finances, and since we’ll be working with her for as long as we’re working this job, that’s not bad information to have, I suppose. As far as we know, she still deals with Vitali, correct?”
Ivan frowned. “I hadn’t heard—” he stopped, glanced at Tae, and gave a rueful smile. “Tae. One of these days, you’ll have to finish telling me the story of what you lot have been up to.”
“It’s—a long story,” Tae murmured.
“The short version is, Vitali won’t work with either Grigory or the government, because Masha double-crossed all of them on our first mission as a crew,” said Lev. “And if Olyessa wasn’t implicated in that, she’s gained significant power and influence in the interim. Which means she’ll have plenty of credits, but she’ll owe plenty of favours. And there will be people from Grigory’s team who are itching to take her down. We may be able to use that in the future, although as Tae said, I’m not certain why it’s relevant at the moment.” He paused, and glanced around. “I’d like all of us to take a look at it. Look for anything you think would be useful. We’re going into this blind, and Masha’s proven she’s willing to use us for her own ends. I’d like to have as much information as possible.”
Tae bit down hard on his molars, fighting back another wave of sick anger.
He’d been stupid enough to trust her.
Lev sighed. “Alright. Jez, how close are we to the coordinates Masha gave you?”
Jez shrugged. “A little less than a standard hour, I guess?”
Lev nodded, and pushed himself to his feet. “Alright. That will put us in Olyessa’s airspace, which I don’t like. However, I suppose Masha’s correct—even if Grigory’s already hunting us, he won’t come after us there. In the meantime, I’d better go talk with Masha.”
Tae glanced up. “Shall I send the information through to her?” His voice was tight.
Lev paused a moment, then finally nodded. “Yes. I suppose we’ll have to.”
He turned and left, closing the door behind him.
“Well,” said Jez, to no one in particular. “Guess I’ll head back to my cockpit, if we’re done here.” She sighed, with the slightly euphoric expression she always got when she was thinking about flying, gave Galina a lingering kiss that made Tae turn his head away, and turned out the door.
When she’d left, Galina glanced around. “I—should go with her, I guess,” she said, sounding for the first time somewhat unsure.
Ysbel shook her head. “Galina,” she said, her tone slightly amused. “You’re part of the crew now. You can go sit in that cockpit with Jez if you want, but if you want to go make sure your things are stowed, you can do that too. No one’s going to throw you off.”
“I’m—afraid I make things a bit—uncomfortable,” Galina murmured, with a wry glance in the direction Lev had left.
Ysbel chuckled. “No, he and Jez make things uncomfortable. That’s not your fault. And, to be fair, he is trying very hard.” She paused. “He’s not doing a very good job. But he is trying.”
This time Galina did crack a smile. “Thank you.” She paused a moment. “I don’t know what happened, and I’m not going to ask. But I don’t blame him for liking Jez. She’s something special.”
Ysbel snorted loudly. “Well, yes, she is. Depending on how you define that word. But I’m glad the two of you get along. Now, go.”
Galina gave her that wry smile, and, after a moment’s hesitation, turned to the passageway that led to the cockpit.
Once she was gone, Tae and Ysbel looked at each other. Ysbel was clearly trying to hold back a smile.
Tae rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Well, like you said. He is trying.”
“You do have to give him that,” said Ysbel. “Do you think everyone on this ship will survive the next few weeks?”
Tae chuckled reluctantly. “You know, once upon a time, when I first joined this crew, I thought the thing I’d be most worried about was the fact that people always seem to be trying to kill us?”
“Yes,” said Ysbel nostalgically. “We were all so innocent back then.” She shrugged. “But, she seems like a nice girl, anyways. I was a little surprised. I assumed whoever Jez brought back would be able to kill her with bare hands.”
Tae shook his head, smiling slightly. “Who knows? Maybe she can. She knows how to use a heat-pistol anyways.”
Ysbel snorted. “Can you imagine our pilot getting together with anyone who didn’t?” She shook her head and stood. “I told Tanya I’d be back shortly. You sent the information to her com as well?”
He nodded.
“Good.” She paused. “I—expect she’ll be doing more in this job than I will. She has much more experience with this type of work.”
Despite the tightness in his chest, Tae smiled as she stepped out the door. He’d noticed the strain between Ysbel and Tanya on Grigory’s ship. But it seemed to have eased in the last few days.
Finally, it was just Tae and Ivan in the room, sitting at the table.
“Tae,” said Ivan at last, pushing back his chair. His face was serious.
“Yes?” Tae looked over at him.
Ivan gave him a searching look. “Are you alright? Really?”
He sighed. “I—I’m fine.”
“Tae.” Ivan ducked his head until he caught Tae’s eyes. “Honestly.”
Tae gave a reluctant smile. “Yeah. I—” he paused a moment and blew out a breath. “I—honestly didn’t think Masha would do that,” he said at last, in a low voice.
Ivan watched him for a few moments. “I know,” he said at last. “I’m sorry.”
Tae shook his head in frustration. “I should have seen. Out of all of us, I was the only one who hadn’t agreed to her plan. I should
have seen, or guessed, or something.” He sighed, and dropped his gaze. “We killed fifty people, Ivan. For no reason. We listened to Masha, and she used us to kill them. I—I knew better, I should have been watching her more closely, but—” He shrugged helplessly, and trailed off.
Ivan was still watching him, his face sympathetic. “I’m sorry, Tae,” he said at last. “I wish I could have done something.”
Tae gave a short, humourless laugh. “That’s the thing. You couldn’t have. You couldn’t have known. But I lived on the streets for how many years? I knew damn well that not paying attention could get someone killed. And—and I bloody did it anyways.”
“Tae,” said Ivan softly. “You can’t do everything on your own. And you shouldn’t have to try.”
Tae shook his head sharply, finally meeting Ivan’s eyes. “Then who will? My whole damn life I couldn’t ever afford to let something slide. If I did, my friends would die. And I bloody forgot that these past few months. I can’t do that again. I—” He stopped quickly, choking back the lump in his throat, and turned away.
He’d wondered, for a few brief, stupid moments back on Grigory’s ship, if Ivan might actually care about him as more than just a friend.
But—well, but he knew better. He wasn’t the boy who Dmitri had somehow fallen for in the university, someone who could afford to laugh, and sleep in, and actually relax, have fun. He’d been stupid enough to be that person for a while. And then he’d damn well learned his lesson.
He wasn’t someone anyone would fall in love with anymore. He couldn’t afford to be. He was just the worried, stressed, overtired kid he’d been his whole damn life, trying to keep the people he cared about alive. And Ivan was kind enough to care about him anyways, like he cared about the rest of the damn crew, because Tae had helped him back in prison. And he was a good friend, but that was all, and Tae bloody well had to stop pretending it might be anything else.
Ivan studied him for a long moment, then gave a small smile. “Tae. Listen. You can’t do everything. No one can. It wasn’t your fault.” He held out his hand, and after a moment, Tae took it and pulled himself to his feet.
