Partners - Book 1

by Melissa Good

  The man glanced at it, then at her. “Want to know the price?”

  “No.” Jess smiled faintly. “I don’t.”

  “Wait.” Dev held up her card. “What about this?”

  “Put it away,” Jess said in a quiet voice. “I’ll explain later.”

  Obediently, Dev stuck the card back in her pocket, vaguely aware of discomfort she didn’t quite know the source of.

  The merchant touched his forehead and took the square, turning to put it into a battered old comp next to the back shelf. Then after it made a small booping sound, he handed it back to her. “Agent,” he said. “Pleasure.”

  “All mine.” Jess watched him fold the garment up and make a bundle of it, which he then handed to Dev with a slight bow. Then Jess clapped Dev on the back. “Let’s go.”

  They got to the end of the row and turned right, going down the cross aisle until they reached the last row, the outer ring of the market that would bring them back to the docking area. Jess walked a little more slowly now, letting her senses extend out as they passed the ratty stalls at the shoreline, smaller and ruder, full of scroungers who were just trying to sell anything they found.

  Hard life. Jess didn’t pause at any of them. But not any harder than the seaweed harvesting that her family members did. She was just distracting Dev from seeing the seal skulls on sale when her warning senses tingled and she reacted instinctively, pulling Dev to one side and going flat against the wall between two stalls, half turning and putting her arms around her.

  Dev found her view blocked but didn’t mind. Jess’s body blocked the misty rain, and it was nice to be pressed against her. “What’s wrong?”

  “Just hold still,” Jess said, in a low mutter. “Some guys coming past us I don’t want to see.” She kept her back turned to the passing crowd, resting her head against Dev’s as they regarded each other at close quarters. After a moment’s pause, Jess ducked her head a little and they kissed.

  It was like the whole damn island faded out for a minute. Jess felt her situational awareness slip, as her body reacted and Dev’s hand slid up to gently touch her face. She literally forgot where she was, focusing intently on the tingle in her guts and how intoxicating it felt to hear the soft sound of passion that escaped her partner.

  Then the wind picked up, and the surroundings faded back in and she lifted her head a little, rubbing noses with Dev as she gazed half lidded into her eyes. “Look behind me.”

  Dev shifted a little, and straightened enough to be able to see over Jess’s shoulder.

  “Anyone standing at those stalls, just browsing?”

  Dev blinked a few times. “No. It’s raining harder. People are going under shelter.”

  “No one sitting on a crate, just loitering?”

  “No.”

  “Good.” Jess leaned in and kissed her again, this time at least listening behind her. She heard only the faint scuff of seal hide boots and the low voices of the merchants, no hint of a government issued heel among them. “Okay,” she finally said. “Let’s move on.”

  “Do we have to?” Dev asked, in a straightforward way. “We have a covering over us.”

  Jess smiled. “Much as I’d love to just stand here and kiss you until dark, we need to get outta here. She casually put her arm over Dev’s shoulders and made a natural turn to the left, her eyes flickering quickly over their surroundings but finding them as innocuous as Dev described them to be. With a faint sigh of relief, she started slowly down the path, keeping her arm around Dev.

  She’d been damn sure she’d seen a pair of spooks. They’d popped into her peripheral vision a little behind them on the path, but now there was no sign of the bastards either before or behind them. Had she been mistaken?

  Might have. Jess resisted the urge to reach up and rub her neck to ease the headache that had started to throb in her skull. She was looking forward to getting back on the boat, away from the island, and to the other side.

  Just her and Dev for a while again.

  Jess felt the slight jar through her boots and she paused, pulling Dev to a halt as well. She made a complete turn, then she started forward again, moving faster. “C’mon Devvie. Didn’t like that noise.”

  “Was it a big boom?”

  “Something like that.” They reached the dock road and headed for their berth. The rain started coming down harder, almost seeming like it was chasing them as they moved quickly across the lava rock path.

  Halfway across the dock, Jess felt the vibration under her feet again and she saw the chop in the harbor pick up. “Uh oh.” She grabbed Dev’s arm and sped up into a lope. “Move, move, move!”

  Dev wasn’t sure what was going on, but she heard the urgency in Jess’s voice and she picked up her pace, running next to Jess down the dock toward their boat just as the boom of footsteps behind them and a deep, rolling vibration rattled them both.

  Jess risked a glance behind them as they reached the boat and she vaulted on board, snaking one foot out to kick the retaining clasp. The dock behind them was full of running figures, all heading for different boats as a long, low howl started to rise from the market.

  “What is that?” Dev asked as she scrambled up the ladder to the control space.

  “Warning.” Jess ignored the stairs and jumped upward, grabbing the railing and pulling herself up and over it to trigger the hatch a hair before Dev got up to the top steps. She hauled ass inside and went to the comms unit, as Dev tossed her package onto the shelf near the door and slid into the captain’s seat.

  “Dock, dock,” Jess barked into the comms.

  Dev flipped the caps off the engine controls and started them, studying the readouts as she felt the rumble start underfoot. She scanned comp, reading the logs since they’d left. “The things arrived, Jess.”

  “Doesn’t matter right now.” Jess clicked the comms. “Dock!”

  “Standby,” the comms answered harshly. “All undock, standby for underway, release.”

  Dev felt the boat start to drift and she confirmed they were loose from the pier, as were lots of other boats around them. She could hear the alert going off louder now, and she sensed a vibration in the air that tickled her ears uncomfortably.

  “Get us outta here, Dev. Get clear of the island north and go as far as you can without losing visual.” Jess got away from the comms and headed for the door. “I’ll secure the goodies. Try not to tilt up too much. I don’t want to slide my ass into the water.”

  “Okay.” Dev leaned forward a little as she started to take the engines online. “I would hate to be responsible for your ass getting wet,” she added, as Jess left the room and headed down to the deck. “Except then you would probably take your clothes off, and that’s always interesting.”

  She pointed the boat toward the entrance to the docks, trying hard to steer clear of the other boats doing likewise. It appeared everyone was trying hard to get away from the island but she had the advantage of bigger engines and she scooted the boat up to the front and headed for the gap.

  A brief glance at the console showed her views of the back deck, and she spotted Jess working amongst the stacks of boxes that had appeared in the cleared area. She reassured herself that Jess was safe, then she focused on the route, giving the engines more power as she cleared the entrance and headed toward the two big gates.

  The waves had come up and she fought the steering, trying to keep the bow on course as she felt the surge of the water. The rain was coming down even harder now. She heard a series of booms behind her and wondered if they were thunder.

  It sounded too regular though, so she looked up at comp, searching for Jess and stopping in motion as she spotted a deep, black cloud rolling down from the island toward the water.

  Toward them. Dev’s eyebrows shot up, and she reacted instinctively, shoving the throttles to full forward and triggering the alarm for the deck. The boat dug through the water and picked up speed, coming up to plane just as they approached the gatehouse.

&nbs
p; It was open, and the guards were nowhere in sight as she powered through, hearing the roar of engines behind her and then something else. It was a deep, uneven rumble, reminding her just a bit of the sound of the space shuttle’s engines when it had landed her downside.

  She didn’t think it was a shuttle though. The gates flashed by her and she took the course Jess had told her to, north and as she curved that way, she saw other boats flashing by, and going the other direction.

  A moment later the hatch burst open and Jess bounded inside, slamming the metal door behind her. “Son of a bitch!”

  Dev evaluated the statement, and decided based on what she knew about the words, that it wasn’t addressed to her. “Did you see that cloud.”

  “Did I see it?” Jess came into her field of vision, her skin smudged with black. “You got me out from under it just in time. Get to the outer buoy and slow down, then bring her around so we can see the show.”

  Dev had no idea what that meant. But she aimed for the buoy, the outer marker of the carefully drawn lanes and once they’d passed it she brought the nose around in a turn, facing back the way they’d come.

  And then her jaw dropped in astonishment. The island was covered in a deep black cloud, and as she watched, it was bisected with a loud, sudden blast that shot debris far up into the air. “Oh!”

  Jess came to stand next to her. “Look at that sucker go.”

  “What is that?” Dev asked, almost breathless. “It’s amazing!”

  “It’s the volcano,” Jess said. “Goes off sometimes. They never know when.” She shook her head. “Hope they got everyone under cover. Let’s get moving before that ejecta gets here.” Jess pointed at the roiling cloud heading their way.

  Dev gunned the engines and moved them into a turn, checking comp as she did so. “Jess? Should we move away from those too?”

  Jess leaned over and saw what she was looking at. Three big boats were heading their way, making a beeline for them, and looking like the bad end of a piece of business. “Oh, yea,” she said. “Finally figured out who I was, huh boys?”

  “Are they bad?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  The cloud caught them, and Dev winced at the thunder of rattling crashes she heard all around her. “Wow.”

  “Faster.”

  “I don’t think it goes any faster, Jess.”

  “Make it.”

  “Um.”

  “Or find someplace to hide us.”

  “THEY STILL THERE?” Jess stuck her head out of the hatch and felt the wind buffet her with startling impact. “Damn it.” The three chasers were plowing through the mixed waves behind them, inching up closer from when she’d looked a minute or two before. “Dev, they’re catching up to us.”

  Dev studied her console. The throttles were pushed as forward as they went. “The wind is too strong,” she said. “It’s making us slow.”

  “Yeah but they have the same problem.”

  “Not exactly,” Dev said. “This vessel is higher than those are above the water.”

  “And?” Jess came to her side.

  “It’s a higher profile against the wind. More for it to push against.”

  Jess considered that, then made a face. “I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”

  “No.”

  “Okay, let me get the guns out,” Jess said. “Be right back.”

  Dev nodded, then she turned back to the controls, settling herself into the chair and searching the scan intently. There wasn’t anything on the horizon for them to hide behind, and her portable comp showed very deep and very cold water beneath them.

  The boat was performing as well as it could. It was a fishing boat, after all, and not something designed for running away from things. A glance at comp showed the three boats starting to split apart a little, two of them moving out and starting to aim on either side of them.

  They would try to get around them, Dev thought, and maybe make them stop. She wished again that they were in the carrier, with its much greater abilities and she suspected probably Jess did as well. But the carrier was far behind them, so she had to find a way to make this thing work better.

  Difficult, since she wasn’t entirely sure of how it worked at all. The programming only went so far.

  She went back to her scanner, setting it to search for obstructions. Then she curled her hands around the rudder controls and hunched forward a little, as though her posture could make the boat go faster. The waves were getting rougher, and she winced as the bow slammed into one, jarring her entire body.

  Even her ears hurt. “Wow.” Dev hoped Jess had been somewhere safe when that happened. She glanced in reflex at scan, but the back deck was empty. Frowning, she reset her scanner for internal and bio and relaxed a little once it showed Jess’s wiremap in the common space.

  Then she spotted a second wiremap in the hallway heading for her and her heart jumped into her throat as she scrambled for comms. “Jess! Someone is approaching you.”

  “Tac,” Jess replied. “Secure.”

  Dev got up and went to the hatch, hesitating before she locked the wheel on it, shoving the metal bar Jess had left next to it into the mechanism. Then she bolted back to the controls and put her hands on them, giving a cursory glance at the waves as she focused on the scanner instead.

  She could see Jess now in outline, the attitude on her body completely changed as she moved across the chamber and approached the inner door, the scanner picking up the weapons on her body and the big blaster she had in her hands. The other wiremap was approaching with equal caution, and...

  “Tac.” Dev triggered the comms. “Armed.”

  “Ack,” Jess responded immediately. “Secure?”

  “Ack.” Dev confirmed. She wrenched her attention from scan and looked out at the water, noting a line of darker clouds on the horizon. It was already raining hard, but she reasoned maybe the storm front might afford some kind of distraction and she angled the bow slightly to the right and headed for it.

  A quick look told her the other boats were now really gaining. She felt like she was being torn in pieces, one part of her demanding a tight focus on Jess, another part searching through the boat’s controls to see if there was something she could do to speed it up.

  It was uncomfortable. Dev watched anxiously as she saw Jess on scan take up a position behind the common room’s table, then she saw the hatch opening and the intruder emerge. The scan picked up an energy flare then, and there was more motion than it could resolve.

  Dev wanted to bolt for the door. Only the programming hammered into her kept her at the controls, and the knowledge that Jess knew far better how to handle the threat below than she had any hope to. She swept the console again, then focused on the small section that showed the condition of the big tanks as their readings were flashing.

  Hm.

  A shudder caught her attention, and she looked quickly outside to find the enemy boats even with them, and one of them shooting projectiles.

  Oh, that was not good. She angled the rudders, sending the boat careening toward the boat shooting at them, feeling the stresses on her body as it listed over, blaster fire boiling the water just past her bow. She cut back in the other direction as the other boat moved to avoid them, wishing she had more speed to work with.

  If only the boat were more agile. She paused, then her eyes tracked up to the console again. Without over thinking it too much she reached up and uncapped two switches, putting her fingers on them and then depressing them firmly.

  At once, the boat nearly ripped itself out of her hands as she heard a rumbling sound that vibrated through the hull and nearly sent her vision blurry. The engines churned and she felt the boat buck under her as she tried to get it back under control.

  On the bright side, the crazed motion made both sets of blasters misfire and the two chase boats closest to her peeled off, arcing around to try and come at them again. Dev didn’t dare look at the scanner as she turned the boat in a tight circle, then powere
d the engines back up and put them into plane heading for the storm.

  This time the boat surged forward with a good deal more speed, and rode higher on the waves, unburdened by the water in the fish tanks at the aft. The gauges showed them going faster, and after a few minutes, the other boats started to fall behind.

  Dev made sure they were going to hold course, then she turned her attention to the scanner.

  Both wire maps were gone. Her heart started pounding hard and she reset the scan, widening it out.

  Nothing. She felt panic start to take her, and she got up from the chair, about to shut the engines down when she heard a knock at the hatch.

  For a moment, she froze, then she responded to the drive of her programming and grabbed the scanner, tight focusing it and pointing it at the entrance, waiting for it to resolve.

  “Hey. It’s cold out here!” A voice penetrated the steel. “Open up!”

  Dev put the scanner down and scooted over, pulling the bar out and working the latch. It popped open and Jess ducked inside, dripping wet and breathing hard.

  She took a step back and cleared space, as Jess shut the door and leaned back against it, her face a little pale.

  “Are you okay?” They both asked at the same time.

  Jess smiled briefly. “Drive.” She indicated the console.

  Dev got back in the chair and put her hands back on the controls. “I let the water out of the animal tank,” she said. “It seems to have made us faster.”

  “Oh.” Jess trudged over and sat down on the stool next to her. “Is that what that was.”

  “Those other boats are behind us now,” Dev said. “They were shooting at us. Trying to stop us I think.”

  “Yeah, they were,” Jess said. “Not for the reason you’d think though.” She flexed one hand, which now in the light showed dark bruises. “So you want the good news or the bad news?”

  Dev eyed her doubtfully. “I don’t know. The bad thing I guess, if we have to do something about it.”

  “Ah.” Jess pushed her hood down and ruffled her hair. “Bad news is, I just offed one of the other side in a pretty ugly way.”