by R. M. Olson
And then it was gone. She smiled and stepped into the office, and warily, Lev followed.
The room was large and comfortable, with sitting cushions placed strategically throughout, and a small fountain bubbling in one corner. In the centre of the room was a simple desk made of a light, polished wood. It was expensive, of course, built out of the best of materials, but it didn’t scream opulence like Grigory’s had. It was intentionally understated, a kind of folksy charm in the design that might have been at home in a small, comfortable cottage in the woods outside Prasvishoni. And behind the desk, a woman, with a wrinkled, grandmotherly face, who he immediately recognized as one of the most cold-blooded killers in the system. Another of them, anyways. At this point, he was well on his way to being on a first-name basis with every power-hungry, conscienceless murderer in the damn Svodrani system.
“Masha Volkova,” she said, in her rustic accent. She was smiling, but Lev could see the cold calculation under those warm brown eyes. “And who might your companion be?”
He met her gaze cooly. “Lev. Formerly of Prasvishoni.”
“I see. And why did the infamous Masha choose to bring you onto her crew, Lev?”
He didn’t drop her gaze, kept his expression bland enough that Masha would have been proud. “I’m good at remembering details, I suppose.”
She knew every last detail of his file, he was certain. But if she wanted to play this game, he would oblige.
She smiled, her face wrinkling into comfortable smile-lines, but the expression looked ever so slightly off. Then he realized what it was. The smile-lines around her mouth were deep and obvious, but the smile-lines around her eyes were all but non-existent.
This was a woman who smiled often, but not a woman who was easily amused.
“A pleasure, Lev.” She studied him for a moment, then turned back to Masha. “Masha,” she said again, as if tasting the name in her mouth. “It’s good to finally meet you in person. Negotiating over holoscreens and coms just isn’t the same. I was so upset when I heard you’d gone to meet Grigory first. He’s always been a quick one, that Grigory.” There was a hint of humour in her voice, an old woman laughing at her own foibles. “But I guess I should count myself lucky that I wasn’t the one on your bad side.”
Masha shrugged slightly. “Grigory killed my parents. When I was a child,” she said, in that calm, even tone of hers. “I felt it was only just that I should take something in return.”
Lev just managed to stop himself from turning to stare at her.
She was probably lying. She must be lying. Why would—
And then he remembered the look on Jez’s face, before they’d ever set foot on Grigory’s ship, every time they mentioned Grigory’s name, the way her eyes would dart towards Masha and then away.
She must have known. Masha must have told her at some point. And that didn’t mean it wasn’t a lie, but—well, but Jez wasn’t the kind of person who would be easily taken in by a lie.
And he was slightly surprised at the pang in his chest as he realized he had no idea what Jez knew and what she didn’t. Because this entire time, he’d always been so damn sure he knew everything that he’d never bothered to ask. He’d somehow never imagined that she’d know something important and not simply volunteer it.
He frowned. Had he always been this much of a damn stuck-up idiot and just not noticed it, or was he actually getting worse?
He wasn’t sure which option he liked least.
Olyessa watched Masha, and she didn’t seem surprised in the slightest. “My condolences,” she said, and a calculating note glinted through her folksy rural accent.
Lev studied Masha from the periphery of his vision. The only reason he could see the slight tension in her posture was the fact he’d known her for so long, worked together with her over and over in situations where seconds seemed like hours and minutes passed like days and their lives and the lives of the rest of the crew hung in the balance.
But it was there.
“I appreciate the sentiment,” said Masha. “However, I’m sure you wouldn’t have sent your boyeviki to shoot at us unless you had something you wished to discuss.”
Olyessa smiled, that smile that was meant to be homey, but didn’t quite reach her eyes. “You’re right. There is something I wanted us to talk about.”
She leaned back in her chair, as if contemplating her next words. Her eyes were half-lidded, and if you didn’t see her posture, the small hints of readiness under the placid exterior, you might have mistaken her for an old woman laying back to enjoy the sunlight.
But he’d seen the coldness in her eyes, and he’d read her file.
“You told me you planned to open a pleasure house to compete with Grigory. Or at least, that’s how you want it to look. You’ve bated Grigory to make sure he’ll come after you, and you needed my credits to set up, and my protection to keep him from just knocking you off.”
Masha nodded.
“And I agreed. But then, just now, you robbed one of my people and stole the information off his chip, and it made me think. The reason you’ve kept yourself alive when you’ve made so many enemies, Masha, is that you never leave things to chance. And here I was, leaving things to chance.”
“You requested a tracking device on our ship, and a security interest in the property I purchased,” Masha said, raising an eyebrow slightly. “I wouldn’t say that’s entirely leaving things to chance.”
Olyessa chuckled. “But you would have been much more careful, wouldn’t you?” She leaned forward. “So here’s the new arrangement, Masha. I’m sending fifteen of my people down there. They’ll arrive on the pleasure planet shortly after you do. And I’ll need collateral. Something that’s as valuable as the funds I’m lending you, and as you know, that’s a large sum.” She smiled slightly. “There’s only one thing you have that might possibly match that—your ship.”
Lev felt ice forming in his stomach.
No one other than the crew knew how valuable the Ungovernable was, that it contained Sasa Illiovich’s lost tech. At least, no one should know. Vitali knew where the ship had come from, but he had a vested interest in not broadcasting the fact that a gang of five rag-tag ex-convicts had managed to rob him blind. And even if he did let that slip, he hadn’t known what it was he had, or that Sasa’s tech was on board.
This had been Masha’s doing, he was almost certain of it—on purpose or not, that was the only way Olyessa would know.
And yet again, he had no idea what Masha’s endgame was.
Ysbel looked up from her holoscreen and glanced around the cabin quickly. “Olya, my love, where’s your brother?”
Olya glanced around the cabin as well, and shrugged. “I don’t know, Mama. I think I heard him open the door a few minutes ago.”
Ysbel swore under her breath, and pushed herself to her feet. “You stay here, please. I’ll go find Misko.”
There was a tension in her muscles she couldn’t get rid of.
They were on Olyessa’s base, in Olyessa’s hangar bay. And Masha and Lev had been gone for what seemed like a very long time now.
She wasn’t used to sitting back and waiting while someone else made the decisions.
Tanya was on the main deck with Tae and Jez, likely preparing for whatever their backup plan was if things went sideways. And Ysbel was trying to track down her son, who’d likely stolen sweets and then hidden so he could eat them without being found out.
She took a deep breath.
Perhaps this was how Tanya had felt since they’d broken her out of prison.
Misko wasn’t difficult to find, mostly because she could simply follow the trail of discarded ration pack wrappers. She found him huddled under the table in the mess hall, hands and face a sticky green, mouth full. He managed to mutter something about ‘dirty plaguing scum-sucker’ as she grabbed him by one arm and dragged him out.
She narrowed her eyes, and his expression went from sullen to mildly terrified. Which, she’d learned, wa
s the only possible emotion that would motivate him not to swear, and considering Tanya’s views on curse words for children, and Jez’s unwavering determination to ensure Misko’s vocabulary was at least as colourful as her own, was probably a prudent fear to instil him him if he wanted to reach adulthood.
“Come here, you,” she said, wetting a cleansing cloth at the ship sink and mopping his face.
“I’m hungry, Mama,” he said sullenly, as soon as his mouth was empty enough that he could speak.
“Yes, well, I have some vitamin rations for you then. You don’t get to eat only sweets. It will make you sick.”
He glowered at her. She glowered back, but the look that had in the past brought prison gang leaders into stammering submission had no effect whatsoever on her son.
“Ysbel.” Tae’s voice came through the headpiece. “Stand by. Lev and Masha are coming back on board. They’ll be here in a couple minutes.”
She glanced helplessly between her son in one hand and the damp, slightly-sticky cloth in the other. “I’ll—be there in a minute,” she said through her teeth.
“Uncle Tae’s a scum-sucker!” Misko shouted.
She tapped her com off against her thigh and glared at him. “And you are coming with me right now, you little terror,” she said.
By the time ten minutes had passed, Ysbel was still in their shared cabin. She had, however, disciplined Misko twice for swearing, explained to Olya how antigravs worked, explained to Olya how force fields worked, explained to Olya how a heat gun worked, explained to Olya why the Svodrani system was named what it was, explained to Olya how space squid moved, explained to Olya the origins of the word “scum-sucker”, disciplined Misko for sneaking off and stealing more dessert ration packs, fed Misko, fed Olya, fed Misko again, and explained to Olya how ration packs were packaged.
When Tanya slipped back through the door, smiling slightly at the scene, Ysbel shook her head wearily.
“My love,” she said, “I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see you in my life.”
Tanya’s smile widened, and she kissed Ysbel’s cheek. “Good. I came to give you a hand. Everyone else is on the main deck already, and I think Masha has something important to say.”
“She always does,” Ysbel muttered sourly.
Tanya gave her a wry smile, then turned to their son, shaking her head. “Come on you,” she said affectionately.
Which was a good thing, as Ysbel was rapidly running short on affection at the moment.
By the time all four of them were assembled on the deck, the others had clearly been there for some time. Ysbel took a long breath, trying to force herself calm.
There was no reason that an entire day alone with two small children—her own two small children—should raise her blood pressure to the point of a potential heart attack, but there you were.
She glanced quickly around at the others.
Tae looked worried, and Ivan stood protectively just to one side of him.
Despite everything, she had to bite back a smile.
Tae was very smart in most areas, but … well, it was a good thing that Ivan seemed like the patient type.
Jez was leaning up against one wall, grinning casually, one arm around Galina’s waist. Masha was as pleasantly expressionless as always.
And Lev—
There was a grim, worried look on his face, and he was watching Jez, and for some reason, Ysbel was almost certain that his concern had nothing to do with the fact that Jez and Galina didn’t have enough room between them to let water through, and had a lot more to do with—well, with Jez.
With whatever Masha was going to tell them.
She frowned.
Masha glanced around at the crew gathered in the small space. “Well,” she said in her blandest tone. “The good news is, our plans have not changed significantly. Olyessa does not want out of this deal, as she sees the potential benefits for herself as clearly as I had hoped she would.” She paused.
“But?” Ysbel prodded.
Masha took a long breath. “She has two conditions. The first is, she is sending her people with us. That may not be a bad thing, all things considered. At the very least, it will make Grigory hesitate before he sends someone in to assassinate us. And second—”
She paused again, and Ysbel caught her quick glance in Jez’s direction.
“And second, she—requests a security. On the Ungovernable.”
The only sound in the room was Jez’s sharp intake of breath. The pilot’s face had gone completely bloodless, her expression stricken.
“What kind of security?” she whispered.
“It will be a physical tracker, installed on the ship,” said Masha. “If our job fails, she’ll own the ship. And to ensure we bring it to her, the tracker will allow her—”
“It would let her wipe the ship completely,” Tae said quietly.
Jez turned to Masha.
Masha nodded. “I’m sorry, Jez. It’s the only way Olyessa would agree to this.”
There was a long moment of silence.
A cold anger was spreading up through Ysbel’s chest.
All of this stank of a setup.
The ship was a thousand times more valuable than any amount of credits. It was priceless.
And Masha had put them in a position where it was impossible to refuse Olyessa’s request. Ysbel had known that the moment she’d seen their ship turn and start after Olyessa’s fighters to head back to her base.
They were on Olyessa’s ground, and she’d take what she wanted.
Since that moment on the casino ship, when she’d learned what Masha had done, she’d known she’d never be able to trust this woman. But, Jez—that ridiculous idiot Jez—still trusted her. And of course Masha knew that. And Ysbel wasn’t entirely sure that Jez would survive this.
“Jez?” Galina whispered into the silence.
Jez closed her eyes for a moment.
“Listen,” Lev said abruptly. “I won’t agree to this.”
“You’re right,” said Ysbel, looking away from Jez. She made no attempt to hide the anger in her voice. “We’re not going to—”
“No.” Jez’s voice was barely audible. She swallowed hard. “Masha,” she said with an effort. “Is—is there anything else we could do? Maybe … maybe I could stay instead. As security, I mean.”
“You can’t,” said Masha quietly. “We’ll need you if we want to pull this off.”
For a few more moments, Jez said nothing. She was breathing too quickly, and there was panic in her eyes.
Ysbel pressed her lips together tightly.
“Do you—do you promise we’ll get her back?” Jez was almost whispering now.
“Jez,” said Masha in a low voice. “I promise you. You won’t lose your ship.”
Jez didn’t take her eyes off Masha. At last she took a deep breath. “Alright then,” she said, her voice almost choking. “Fine. We can—we can do it, I guess. If—if everyone else is OK with it.”
She turned abruptly, and disappeared through the door to the cockpit.
Galina shot Masha a look of controlled anger, and turned to go after her.
For a few minutes, no one spoke.
At last, Lev drew in a long breath. “Masha,” he said.
“Yes?” Her tone was still fighting to be pleasant and calm.
“Masha. If you hurt Jez—” he broke off, voice choking.
Masha looked around the deck, the weariness in her face suddenly very apparent. “I don’t ask you to trust me,” she said. “But at least believe me when I say, there is tech on this ship I don’t intend to lose, and I certainly don’t intend to leave in Olyessa’s hands. Perhaps that will give you some measure of comfort.”
“Very well,” said Lev in a quiet voice. “But if you do this to Jez—if you make her lose the Ungovernable—you’ll lose us. Every last one. Because I will take my chances with Grigory over working with you, and I can guarantee that Tae and Ysbel will say the same. So. I suggest you
think very, very hard about the choices you make.”
“I always do, Lev,” she said quietly. “I don’t think you understand just how much.”
“Masha,” said Ysbel finally, letting her voice go completely emotionless. “Any favour you think I owed you was paid when I didn’t kill you on the casino ship. So don’t think I’d let anything stop me.”
Tae said nothing, but the look on his face was one of someone who’d smelled something rotten. Ivan placed a hand gently on his shoulder, and Tae closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.
“I am sorry,” said Masha, her voice still calm, but there was a strain under it that hadn’t been there before. “However, I was telling Jez the truth. I fully intend to keep the Ungovernable. Tae, I’m going to need some help from you to get everything ready.”
Tae looked at her, his face still slightly twisted in disgust, then turned on his heel and stalked out of the room. After a moment, Masha followed.
Lev shook his head, face grim, and went out after them.
“Is Aunty Jez going to be alright?” asked Olya in a small voice.
Ysbel looked down, startled out of her reverie. Olya was watching her with a concerned expression.
Ysbel gave her daughter a small smile. “She will be fine, Olya. You know that pilot girl won’t let anything happen to her ship, so you don’t need to worry about it. Besides, I won’t let anything happen to her, and nor will your Uncle Tae or your Uncle Lev. So it will be fine.” She paused. “Let’s go. You still haven’t cleaned up your room.”
When they’d reached the cabin, and the children were arguing sullenly in their bedroom about who’s turn it was to make the bed, Ysbel turned to Tanya.
“I don’t like this,” she said quietly. “There’s no way Olyessa should have known enough about this ship to want to use it for leverage. That has to have come from Masha. But I don’t understand why.”
“I don’t like it either,” said Tanya, shaking her head. “I don’t know what Masha’s playing at, and I don’t like it.”
They were quiet for a few moments. At last Ysbel said, “My love. I—I know I haven’t been good before at asking your opinion. But—I’m worried about Masha. And I’m worried that there may come a time that it will be a matter of her life or ours.”
