“Slouching.”
“That’s not a slouch, that’s… Never mind. I changed my mind. Do your thing, but do it over there. You’re the perfect decoy. Not a soul will notice me and Chace.”
“All right,” he said, “but do you want to know I found her now, or do you want me to yell it from twenty meters away?”
Of course he’d spotted her.
“Don’t get smug,” she said. “Where is she?”
“Forty degrees. I can give you a boost.”
She punched his arm.
“Careful,” he admonished. “You might draw attention.” With his self-satisfied smile firmly in place, he veered right, easily cutting a path through the crowd. Ash followed, an uneasy sort of contentment spiraling through her chest. She’d had this friendly banter with her previous team. She’d grown used to them, let them get past her defenses. Let them become family.
And she’d let them die.
No, damn it.
She pushed away the guilt, the oppressive regret. It hadn’t been her fault. She had to stop focusing on the past and focus instead on the present. She would get Mira safely to the capsule, then she would shake Neilan Tahn out of the stars.
They reached a break in the line of kiosks, and Ash followed Hauch’s line of sight. She spotted Mira near the entrance to platform C. The sign above the check-in desk said a TessonPense transport had landed one minute ago.
Huh. TessonPense. That was the same company that—
Mira spotted them. Quickly she turned back to the platform agent and swiped a finger across her comm-cuff to send her ID.
The man stared too long at his own cuff, then he looked up and to his left. A trio of determined-looking men approached.
Damn it.
“Got one on my right,” Hauch said beside her. “Strike that. Two. Pincher maneuver.”
“Take them,” Ash said. “Chace, you’re with me.”
Hauch split off toward his two targets.
Ash dodged through the crowd, shoving people who didn’t move quickly enough. The trio had almost reached Mira. Ash had to get to her before Scius’s dregs did and before they or the agent hit the button for the security barrier that would cut the platform entrance off from her and the market.
The agent’s gaze found her. He reached toward the console.
Ash drew her pulse-pistol and fired. Re-aimed at the trio—
One got a shot off before she dropped him. It hit someone in the crowd behind her.
Ash strode forward, shot at a second dreg, but he dove behind the check-in counter.
The third man lunged for Mira.
Ash’s shot hit him, but her pulse-pistol needed time to recharge. He didn’t go down, and now he had Mira as a shield.
He reached toward the console.
Ash sprinted forward the same instant Chace did.
The dreg tapped the screen. A red warning light flashed above their heads and an alarm blared once.
Twice.
Ash dove over the yellow line marking the security barrier.
The alarm wailed a third time before the barrier shot up fast behind her and Chace.
Too damn close.
Ash rose to a knee and drew her Covar. The dreg backed away with Mira, angling toward the opening in the back wall.
“Don’t move,” Ash ordered. Neither the dreg nor Mira listened. Ash couldn’t get a clean shot.
Then Mira dropped her weight down. The dreg’s gaze followed her. He must have tried to lift her back to her feet because suddenly she surged upward. The top of her head clipped the man’s chin. She rammed her elbow into his gut and tried to slip free.
He kept hold of her, but there was just enough of a target…
Ash fired.
The dreg fell.
Mira stumbled into the back wall. She leaned against it, breathing hard, then stared down at the unmoving man.
Ash rose. The security barrier behind her blocked their exit back to the marketplace. It left them in a small room with the only way out being the narrow opening beside Mira, which would lead them to the landing platform.
Ash glanced at the console. She could bring the barrier back down. It should only take a minute.
The voice-link hooked over her ear clicked on.
“Status?” Hauch demanded.
“We’re okay. You—”
“Good,” Hauch said. “Find another way out. Security is swarming toward you.”
“You need help?” She could hear him breathing hard, moving quickly.
“No. They’re after you. Get out.”
“We’ll meet at—”
“You need to get back to the Corps.”
Not yet, she didn’t. She strode toward Mira.
“You hear me, Ashdyn?”
“Yeah. I hear you.” She ended the transmission and stepped over the dead dreg.
Mira looked up.
“You’re an idiot,” Ash said as she passed.
“The agent was helping me.”
“You think so,” Ash said with zero inflection in her voice. She entered the short hallway. The landing platform lay on the other side, a large hexagon with protective walls to either side of her. The opposite side was wide open with a drop of at least fifty meters, and in the hex’s center sat the TessonPense transport.
The thing was old, its underside slightly warped from thousands of atmospheric entries. Steam vented from the craft’s cooling and stabilization cylinders. The internal enviro should balance out soon, and the crew would begin unloading freight onto the conveyor belt beside the craft. That belt led underground to the network of tunnels where the cargo would be sorted, then sent to delivery vehicles.
“We’ll get out on the belt,” Ash said.
She started across the platform, Mira and Chace close behind. They were halfway to the cargo tunnel when the transport’s bay door began to lower. Not a major problem—the crew should mind their own business—but a low hum made her spine stiffen.
It was the sound of an approaching ship. It wasn’t unusual to hear that at a spaceport, but the trajectory didn’t feel right. Commercial spacecraft entered atmospheres over the ocean. This one came from behind them.
“Run!” Ash yelled.
Too late. Strafing bullets cut across their path as a Kataran light raider roared overhead. It air-braked when it reached the other end of the platform, then rotated its guns toward them.
Ash changed course and sprinted for the nearest cover: the transport’s landing gear.
She kept herself between Mira and the raider. Bullets struck her twice. Her longcoat kept one from breaking skin. The other passed through and embedded into a rib.
Ash ignored the injury, shoved Mira toward the landing gear, and drew her Covar. It wouldn’t do anything against the raider, but the small attack craft had descended almost level with the platform. A door opened. The dregs would charge out soon.
Definitely Scius’s people. The bastard was determined to take her alive. Make her an example. Make her suffer.
She wouldn’t let that happen.
Bullets pinged off the landing gear and pelted the ground to either side, keeping her, Mira, and Chace pinned.
Ash looked up. The gap between the landing gear and the transport’s hull wasn’t big, but the three of them should fit.
“I’m going up,” she said. It was one hell of a jump to reach the edge of the opening, but she should be able to make it.
She bent at the knees, then funneled everything she had into her legs.
She caught it! One hand slipped off, but she managed to hold on. She breathed through the pain in her side, hauled herself up—
And nearly had her head blown off.
She scurried behind a wall of crates. Bad idea. She was cornered, and some asshole kept firing at her.
What the hell was this? It wasn’t unusual for cargo crews to be armed, but these people were efficient. They’d identified the transport’s vulnerability and positioned themselves to take her out.
Damn it, she didn’t want to kill these people.
She was crouching behind the makeshift wall of crates, trying to decide on a course of action, when the crew stopped shooting. She realized her mistake the second something thumped behind her.
She spun, tried to bring up her Covar to aim, but pain shot through her arm and the gun went flying.
She went for the knife at her thigh.
A vise locked around her wrist, digging fingers between her tendons.
She swung her other hand toward her attacker’s face.
He caught that too.
Ash was one second away from kneeing him to oblivion when she recognized the face staring back at her.
“Rip?”
6
Rykus kissed her.
He shouldn’t have. He should have been focused on safety and security and the struggle outside, but Ash tasted like storm clouds edged with the glow of a star. He didn’t want to let her go. He had worried he would arrive too late, that he had already lost her to this hellhole of a planet.
He allowed six seconds—enough time to convince himself she was real and alive and in his arms—before he pulled away.
“I’ve got her, Joyner,” he called out. “Get that door closed.”
Ash tilted her head to the side, let one of her bewitching smiles touch her lips. “You think you’ve got me?”
Seeker’s God, he loved this woman, even when she was volatile and reckless.
She stumbled into his chest when the deck lurched beneath them—the enemy switching to more powerful munitions.
“Tell me you’re not with the raiders,” he said, holding her close.
She pressed a kiss to his lips. “They want me more than the cargo.”
“Of course they do,” he muttered.
She gave him a grin, then knelt beside the open landing gear hatch to help her companions, a woman and a man, into the transport.
“The pilot is trying to get airborne,” he told her. “The bay door is jammed open. Engines won’t do more than idle until we get it shut.”
“You tried to bypass it?” she asked, steadying the woman, whose hands were shaking.
“The pilot’s working on it,” he said.
Gunfire echoed through the crate-filled cargo bay. He’d sent the crew to the jammed-open door. They had emergency weapons but very little training.
“Come on,” he growled. He led the way through the bay, which made up nearly the entire transport. A freight crane occupied the chamber’s center, its hoist line already lowered and hooked to a shipping container. He jogged past it, slipped around another wall of crates, then spotted Joyner and three crewmen by the lowered cargo bay door.
Relief passed through Joyner’s eyes when he looked over his shoulder.
“We can’t sit here forever,” the man said.
“Security should be here soon.”
Behind him, someone let out a loud snort.
Rykus looked over his shoulder. It was the man Ash had pulled on board.
“These are Scius’s people. Security won’t come anywhere near here.”
Rykus looked at Ash for confirmation. She gave him a sharp nod.
Well, hell.
Another hard hit rocked the transport.
“I’ll get the engines online,” Ash said.
He shook his head. “We can’t break atmosphere until we get the door shut, and this transport isn’t built to fly far sub-atmo.”
“We don’t have to fly far, just away from here.”
“We can’t risk the crew,” he said. “Where does that cargo belt go?”
She looked to her right as if she could see the conveyor disappearing into the underground tunnel.
“Okay. I’ll make sure the raider follows me.” She scanned the cargo bay. “We can dump a few crates. That will give you cover to get underground. Chace.” She looked at her friend. “The refrigerated units should stop bullets. Get them ready to offload. Then get ready to jump.”
“What are you doing?” Chace asked.
“Getting this wreck airborne.” She turned to her right where the crew ladder led up to the cockpit and the small passenger cabin.
Rykus didn’t want her to go, but she would be able to get the engines back online, and the crew’s safety was top priority.
Gritting his teeth against the impulse to keep her safe, he let her climb the ladder while he continued on to the crane in the cargo bay’s center. The crew had abandoned it with the first rounds of fire, and a crate still hung from its hoist line.
He tapped on the control panel and got the payload moving.
“Pilot’s on the way down.” Ash’s voice came from his comm-cuff. “You have cover yet?”
“Working on it.”
The crane was designed to lift heavy loads, not to move them quickly.
“You don’t have time. The… Shit. Get everyone off. Now!”
A roar crescendoed in the bay as the engines revved.
“The unit isn’t at the exit,” he said. He could only see the top of the bay door opening. It would take another minute to swivel the crate, but if the angle was right…
“Take off at a cant. About thirty degrees.”
“Sure. No problem,” Ash replied, more sarcasm than usual bleeding through her voice.
“Get ready and hold on,” he yelled. He didn’t know if the crew heard him because he couldn’t see them, but the deck listed hard. Rykus slammed into the crane’s base, almost slid past it, while the crate swung through the air like the killing ball at the end of a flail. It slammed into a wall of freight, knocking it over, then the ship tilted farther.
The transport dropped—Ash trying to stay low so they had a chance to bail—and the load swung again. This time its chain hit the top edge of the bay opening, buckling the metal like paper.
Rykus scrambled back to the console and hit the Release button.
The hook disengaged and the crate dropped.
“Go! Go! Go!” he heard Joyner yell.
He didn’t see who made it off or if he’d dropped the crate at the right time and place to give them cover. The deck lurched the other direction. He slid, bouncing off every crate and outcropping and metal railing in the bay.
He tried to reach an emergency crash seat, but his ears popped. G-forces and a sudden and extreme ascent smothered the air from his lungs. He lost all sense of direction.
More chaos. More nauseating thunder and chest-crushing pressure.
He flailed, trying to get traction and stop his uncontrolled slide across the bay.
The deck listed left, then right. He tangled in something, grabbed hold of it, then clung to the edge of consciousness until one final impact wrenched it away.
It took too long to recognize the white noise roaring in his ears and too long to feel the water lapping around his ankles.
He shook his head, flinging away the shadows striping his vision. Then he saw it—the gush of ocean filling the transport through the open bay door and other breaches in the hull.
His heart rate stuttered into a quick, steady beat. Focus on survival. Focus on the mission. Focus on getting to Ash before this hunk of metal sinks.
He untangled himself from a cargo net. The straps had lashed his body, but they’d saved his life. Temporarily at least. The water reached his knees and continued rising as the transport sank at a sharp angle.
Rykus half swam, half waded to the ladder rising diagonally to the deck above. Crash seats had snapped open to either side of it. Two on the left were occupied and triggered, the shock-absorbing foam just now sloughing away.
Chace unbuckled. He gave Rykus one cold look before he reached for the ladder.
The woman didn’t move. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her fingers dug into the crash seat’s armrests.
Rykus wanted to yank Chace off the ladder,
check on Ash himself, but water lapped up to the woman’s waist. She didn’t look close to unfastening her restraints.
He waded to her, then placed a hand on her arm before he reached for the buckle at her chest.
Her eyes shot open. Her breaths were shallow and rapid.
“I’m going to get you out of here. What’s your name?”
She stared but didn’t seem to see him.
“You a friend of Ash’s?” He tried to pry her hands off the armrests. It felt like he was breaking her fingers.
“Hey,” he said. “I’ve got you. All you have to do is let go of the armrest and hold on to me.”
She blinked. Then she said, “Shit. Shit.”
The words seemed to break her terror-induced paralysis. She latched onto him, and he pulled her to her feet.
“I’m Mira,” she said.
She moved a step when he urged her forward. Then she stopped. Looked up.
“Ash. Shit.”
Ash descended halfway down the ladder before she shoved off. She splashed into the water just out of his reach. A bruise spread across her left cheek. A gash above her right temple poured blood down half her face. It dripped into the water, creating a haze of red.
Rykus kept himself from reaching for her but only because she’d focused on Mira with a planet-rattling fury.
Mira backed into his chest.
Rykus felt his brow furrow. He’d thought they were friends. Maybe he was wrong.
Chace dropped into the water behind Ash. “Reef won’t hold long. We gotta go.”
Ash’s vehement glare shifted to Chace. Rykus had rarely seen her this angry. Usually, she disguised her emotions with barely veiled flirtations and blatant nonchalance. Whatever Mira had done, it had pushed Ash to the brink of her self-control.
“Ashdyn,” Rykus said, keeping his voice low, neutral.
Her eyes snapped to his. He waited for her to step outside the anger and to think, to remember who she was, where she was.
After a long hesitation, she erased her emotions with a curt nod. Good.
“Exit out the bay door,” Rykus said, steering Mira that way. He turned to Chace. “You next. Ash and I will—”
“Who the fuck are you?” Chace demanded.
Rykus hadn’t misjudged the look the man had given him earlier. It had been hostile. A little possessive too.
Shades of Allegiance Page 5
