by Laurie Bell
About White Fire
Everybody lies. Watch your back.
Sure, Agent Toni Delle has trust issues. Mate, her canine robot partner and Zach, her attitude-enabled shipboard Computer Intelligence Interface constantly tell her that – but as she told them, that was because of The Smuggler.
She would have refused her new mission altogether if it wasn’t for the insane amount of money... Oh, who was she kidding – danger, betrayal, secrets, lies – these were all the things she loved about her job. She just didn’t expect The Smuggler would be involved. If she’d known that she would have told her boss to jump out of an airlock, in space, without a suit.
So she takes the mission: find and stop a new weapon being manufactured and smuggled into the hands of criminal elements all over the galaxy. And hey, while she's at it, can she also find the missing weapons designer linked to these shipments?
The only problem is she has to rely on information provided by The Smuggler himself. And he may not be the only one capable of betrayal.
Dedication
White Fire is dedicated to Nana and Poppa Bell. You taught me the joy of reading, took me to the library, inspired me, read to me, read next to me, showed me just how important books could be. Look, I wrote one!
Contents
About White Fire
Dedication
PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
PART TWO
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINTEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
EPILOGUE
Acknowledgements
About Laurie Bell
Copyright
PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
“Collision in less than one minute.”
Zach’s pixilated face disappeared from the screen near Toni’s elbow and a large countdown clock appeared.
“Really?” she snapped at the Computer Intelligence Interface. Targeting controls moved of their own accord under her fingertips as Mate continued to fire at their attacker.
She glanced down at the canine robot. He lay in the small opening under the console in front of her knees. A hardline cable snaked from the console into the back of his head, parting the fake fur covering his metallic body. It gave him direct access to the Blackflame’s weaponry and cut seconds off the ship’s reaction time.
“Keep shooting, Mate.” Toni had never been more glad for Mate’s micro-speed and predictive accuracy. Kheghing hell, this is a disaster. They were going to end up as floating pieces of frozen flesh and inactive chunks of metal.
“Direct impact,” Zach reported. Toni didn’t spare a glance at her viewer as she threw the Blackflame into another dive, preventing the second ship achieving target lock by mere seconds.
“We have to get out of here, Boss,” Zach warned, his voice rising above the scream of the overextended generator.
Ya think? Toni put the Blackflame into another spin. “Mate?”
“I have completed the scans,” he announced, voice steady. Toni’s heart was trying to escape out of her throat and she wished she had even an ounce of her partner’s robotic calm. Her hands were clenched so hard around the control stick, her fingers were cramping.
“Did you get what we need?” she shouted. The pitch of her voice rose as the Blackflame rocked sharply again. Shenghi! Stay out of their targeting sensors! Tendrils of her hair slipped across her face. She didn’t have a hand free to yank the white strands away.
“I have been unable to paint either ship with a marker.”
“We have entered the asteroid belt,” Zach announced. Toni didn’t need the CII to tell her that, she could tell from the way the small ship bounced and jolted like it was achieving orbit without a gravity stabilizer. She strengthened the deflector shield and flicked on her personally designed predictive tracking program.
“Zach?”
“The Renegade and the Tigerforce have halted outside the belt,” Zach confirmed.
“That is because the pilots are not fools,” Mate said.
Meaning she was. Well, he wasn’t wrong. Toni cut the Blackflame’s speed and allowed momentum from the NSD, the Normal Space Drive, to push them further into the field. “Mate, I need you to navigate with Zach. Plot us a course through this madness.” She pulled hard on the stick as a misshapen hunk of rock appeared in front of them without warning. Sweat dripped into her eyes, slicking the skin where her electronic shades sat on the bridge of her nose. She didn’t dare release the controls to stop them slipping. The bridge’s harsh lighting speared into her sensitive eyes, making them water and blurring her vision. Icy.
She couldn’t initiate a Ticyon Flux Field from within the belt. Small pieces of rock no thicker than her fingernail would prevent the Blackflame generating a field of Ticyons solid enough. Without the field to force space to bend, there was no way the Blackflame was jumping. She had to get them out of the asteroid belt.
Her body jerked forward with the strength of the next hit. Her shades flew off her face as her safety belt crushed her chest. The cockpit lights immediately dimmed. Thanks Zach. Even in the midst of a firefight he was aware of her limitations.
“We need to get out of here. If the shields fail, we’ll be mashed into pieces.”
“Yes, Zach,” she said, sarcasm dripping from her tone. It was that or scream in terror. “Are the two ships waiting for us?” She squinted into the display screen, the brightness of the backlight sent spears of pain into her eyeballs. Details blurred into a wash of color.
“I can no longer see the Renegade or the Tigerforce on the scanners. However, that does not mean they have left the system.”
“We’ll have to take the risk. Mate, have you got a path?”
“Seventy-eight percent probable.”
“Seventy-eight percent probable we’ll get through the belt in one piece?” The C-bot didn’t answer. Shenghi! “What are my options, guys? More speed or less?”
“Floor it,” Zach told her.
Mate contradicted him immediately. “No, greater speed will increase our chances of taking damage. Severe damage.”
“Trust me,” Zach said.
Toni flicked her gaze to the closest screen. Zach’s digitized face blinked up at her. “Boss, trust me,” he implored. Could a CII implore? As Zach was the first CII Toni had ever owned, she didn’t know if his emotional responses were the result of the modifications she’d made to his programming or if he’d always had that ability. Kheghing hell. Make a freaking decision already.
She could trust Mate. Zach was an unknown. And yet …
Pulling her straps tighter, she ordered Mate to lock himself in. Taking a deep breath, she ad
dressed the CII. “If this is a short trip, pal, I’m resetting your defaults.”
Two near misses and one heart wrenching moment of indecision later, the Blackflame shot out of the asteroid belt at full speed. Sweat saturated Toni’s silk shirt. After she peeled her hand off the stick, she clutched weakly at her stomach. Breathing through her nose, she swallowed back bile and sank into her seat.
“Great flying, Boss!” Zach whooped with electronic glee.
“Seriously, I am reprogramming you,” she told him, her voice wobbling. After a moment, she lifted her head. “The two ships? The Stargazer and the Sunchaser?”
“The Stargazer designated Renegade and the Sunchaser designated Tigerforce are no longer appearing on our scanners.”
“Khegh it!” Toni let the Blackflame drift while she recovered from the battle and the stress of flying through the asteroid belt. Luckily her shades weren’t broken. Slipping them back on her nose protected her delicate eyes but not her pride. Useless. She laid her head against the seat rest and breathed slowly. I’m still here. It had been touch and go. Her hands shook—khegh it, her whole body wracked with tremors. Her skin was clammy, she was probably in shock. Mate monitored her vital signs but hadn’t said anything, so she couldn’t be too bad off. A lie down and a nap, or a very stiff drink, was on the cards. She’d failed to capture the pirates. Tears prickled. She was a failure as an agent and as a pilot. What am I going to do now? She pictured her boss’s face when she told him the news. Antonio Zaambuka wouldn’t say a word she was sure, but his stare would contain all his disappointment. Scratching her nails against her neck scars, her mind fell blank.
This was not the glowing start to her agent career she’d been hoping for. “How can I call Zaambuka now? I can’t report I’ve lost our main suspect.”
“So don’t tell him.”
Toni squinted at the CII’s face on the screen near her elbow. “Zach, I have to. Look, you’re new, I haven’t fully explained the situation and I—”
“Perhaps a better option would be to delay your report until you have something to offer?” Mate suggested.
She smiled down at her long-time friend and scratched a hand through his fake fur. The course chestnut strands tangled beneath her fingers. “I’m so glad I have you, Mate. What would I do without you?”
“You will never need to find out. I will always be here.”
There wasn’t a lot she was grateful to her parents for—not that she’d ever admit to, anyway—but Mate was the exception. Mate was everything. “Good plan.” She stared into the viewscreen at the empty blackness outside her ship. Plasteel and a deflector shield was all that stood between her and a nasty death. “I should get him a tie,” she mused.
“Boss?”
“Do not bother to ask, Zach.” Mate said dropping his head to rest on top of his paws.
Toni looked down at her friend. “Aww—he’s new. We should tell him about our mission.”
Zach appeared on every screen. His digital face lifted the outline of an eyebrow. “Boss? Our mission is to find the hijacked supply ships and stop the hijackers, isn’t it?”
Toni grinned, well aware it made her look a little mad. The CII wouldn’t notice. Kheghing hell, she loved their non-judgmental little circuits. “Do you know how we got you, Zach?”
Reaching forward, she started tapping their next course into the navigation program. All the shipments had gone missing between their pick-up point on Marn and Waystation EEXDU or Waystation Tildex. She decided to head back to EEXDU.
“I was assigned to you when you were gifted with the Blackflame upon your graduation.”
Toni took a moment to stroke the panel beneath her fingertips at the memory. “Yes, Zach. Zaambuka, Ant—I call him Ant—gave me a ship, this ship. I thought it was a loaner, you know? But nope. Registration codes and all—in my name. I still don’t know why.”
“Because he believes in you, Toni,” Mate said.
She shook her head. Numbers ran through massively complex calculations beneath her hands. “It still doesn’t make sense. I’m sure it’s a test of some sort.” She watched the numbers dance. I won’t let him down. She would solve this case. No matter what it took.
“And the tie? I still don’t understand.”
Toni let loose a laugh. The numbers stopped. “Let’s go,” she told the CII. Through the screen, space blurred and dissolved as they jumped. She leaned back and released her security belt. “Tie! Ha. Ant is pretty retro—loves old human traditions. A hang over from growing up on one of the border settlements. Well. He wears these old human clothes, suits and stuff, so I like to buy him ties—the more garish the pattern, the better. We, uh, don’t have a lot of money, Zach.” Toni burst out laughing. Her hysteria was probably a result of the adrenaline release from the recent battle.
“Why do you call it your mission?” The CII still sounded confused. How could an electronic voice sound that way? Curious. She’d better check the coding she’d tweaked, she might have tagged something incorrectly.
“And our actual mission?” Mate asked, disconnecting from the ship and moving out to sit down beside her.
“Oh Mate, way to spoil the mood.” Toni thought back to the rumors they’d heard on their first visit to Waystation EEXDU. “We know management suspects pirate activity in the area and we know a Sunchaser and a Stargazer are frequent visitors around both Waystations from Zach’s hack into the security feeds,” she mused aloud.
“Engineer Danson on Waystation EEXDU mentioned a Stargazer offloading crates of water with the Marn logo. Do you believe they will return?”
“They’ll be long gone, Boss.” Zach insisted. “The two pilots wouldn’t dare return to the station. I think they’ll disappear completely.”
Toni dropped her head into her hands. Mate shuffled closer and pressed his body weight against her leg. She lowered her hands without thinking and ran her fingers through his faux fur.
“Stopping them today does not mean the next shipment will be safe from hijack,” Mate told the CII.
What next? Blank. Her mind was completely blank. Failure. That’s all she could see.
“Boss?”
“Just give me a minute.” What had Zach said before? She straightened. Stop the hijackers. “How did the pirates find out about the shipments?”
“Boss?”
Toni glanced down at Mate. “How did they discover the shipment route?”
“We looked into that,” Zach interrupted.
“Tell me again. Break it down,” she ordered. “The shipments are loaded on Marn, but the route is not assigned until they arrive at the first Waystation. You spoke to the dock master and the clerk who organized the schedules. There was no time for the message to be changed or altered before the route was assigned, therefore no time for it to be discovered and intercepted.”
She gazed up at the cockpit ceiling. Both the clerk and the dock master on the first Waystation were clean. “The second Waystation?”
“The control center was tight. Backgrounds checked out. No anomalies, no new staff, no sudden departures. I hacked the system and there was nothing odd.” Zach told her.
“I only told you to get into the security feeds. You hacked the servers?”
“Yes.”
“Did you run a check to see if anyone else hacked the servers before you?”
Zach was silent.
“And what about the first Waystation?” Why didn’t I think of this before? Toni twitched her head to the side. How could Zaambuka trust her to handle this investigation alone when she’d forgotten some of the most basic elements of a con—distraction and misdirection. She could fix this. She would fix this and solve her first case. Zaambuka would see. She could do this. “What about data leaks?”
“We will have to return to both locations to run those tests, Boss.”
CHAPTER TWO
The Blackflame arrived on Waystation EEXDU early in the Waystation’s morning, or so the local time alert told her. To Toni, it felt like la
te evening. She should have checked the station’s standard time and squeezed in a nap. Time differences always gave her a dull headache.
As the two agents stepped off the Blackflame’s ramp, Toni tasked the CII with the job of infiltrating the Waystation’s electronic systems to search deeper after he reported finding fragmented code. She and Mate headed to the dock master’s office to confirm the shipping routes again. The stolen manifests listed basic medical supplies, water, clothes, and mechanical parts. It seemed like an odd list of items to steal. She wondered if the pirates might be setting up a base somewhere.
The dock master scratched at his balding scalp as he thought about his answer. His skin, tinged aqua-green, suggested he originated from the Odeen Sector, but Toni couldn’t be sure. A forked tongue darted out to lick his lips. Well, that confirmed it. “Yeah, I remember a Sunchaser. Big old mark on the stern. The pilot was hard to forget.”
“Why is that?” The smell of alcohol wafting off the dock master was so strong. Toni didn’t know if it came from his breath or his clothes.
“The woman stood out, you know what I’m saying? A bit like you. I mean, not see through and all, but she made an impression. Built real nice and knew how to dress. She was memorable, all right?”
Toni tugged the sleeve of her silk shirt down over her wrist. Silk was one of the only materials that didn’t irritate her sensitive skin. “In what way? I need more than just an impression. I need a description.”
“’Bout your height. Hair that was all colors. Purple eyes. Astril accent.”
“Astrillian?” What was a Sector Two native doing all the way out here?
“Do you mind getting me a screen capture off your security vision?”
“Honey, those things don’t work. They’re just for show, you know? A way to deter troublemakers.”
She sighed. Of course the security systems didn’t work. Her shades vibrated against her nose. A message from Zach popped up on her glasses display.
Zach: Hey Boss.
