From the corner of my eye I saw a trio of shadows stretch along the dim shaft of light from
the doorway. I’d been so focused on Roy I hadn’t even heard the doors swish open.
One of the shadows oozed forward, dissolved itself into the bullnecked shape of Kriegsman. I
couldn’t see his sneery smile but I felt it between my ribs. The other two shadows brightened
into my polar bear watchers.
The Colonel ambled onto the bridge, one hand behind his back. The other tapped a long, black
neural rod against his thigh. Sight of that nasty little device triggered memories that exploded all
conscious thought. I knew I should pick up on that line, knew I should play the game. But my
mind froze.
Roy didn’t. He kicked me in the knee, broke free as I yelped. Skipping out of my reach, he
jammed hands on his hips and pursed lips at Kriegsman. “Well, it took you long enough!”
Kriegsman jerked the neural rod up. Roy lifted his chin, lips still pursed, and waited him out.
The Colonel shook with the effort, but he lowered the wand.
“That’s better.” Roy backed up to me and laid a hand on my shoulder.
I didn’t know what he was up to but he seemed to have it under control so I played along.
“Are we all done here, then?”
Roy turned to fix me with an angelic smile. “You certainly are.” Still smiling, he shoved me
into Kriegsman’s arms. “You can arrest her now, Colonel. She’s served her purpose.”
“What? ” I surged against Kriegsman’s grip. The Colonel stopped me with a fist in my
kidneys. The pain cut my breath off. Only reason I didn’t drop to my knees was because
Kriegsman’s other hand had a lock on my throat.
Roy folded his arms and regarded me with exaggerated sympathy. “Good try, darling, but no
cigar. You didn’t really think I believed you survived by accident, did you? After the Dogs
specifically blew the cargo hold? Tsk, tsk on you. We knew the Dog lovers in HQ had an agent
planted in our team. I figured you were it when you turned up after the attack. The fact our
Doggie prisoner refused to kill you when he had the chance proved it. After that, it was just a
matter of giving you time to make your move.”
Gobbing hells, I was scragged for sure. Unless – I pulled myself up in my best Aryan fashion
and twisted around to sneer at Kriegsman. “Really, Colonel, just how incompetent are you
pretending to be? Do you expect me to believe you could be duped by this –”
Kriegsman’s uppercut caught me hard in the chin. I rolled with it, but it staggered me off
balance. He had me by the arm before I could recover. “You’re the only one fool enough to think
we weren’t on to you. The Major here has been part of our plans from inception.”
“Major? ” That one shocked me even through the stars popping across my vision.
Roy swept me an aristocrat’s bow. “Major Rachotai Bunyasam. SteFleet special ops.
Unfortunately for you, not at your service.” Sighing theatrically, he fluttered lashes at me with
malicious delight. “And now, darling, you have outlived your usefulness. Time to bring the
curtain down and wipe off the make-up.” He fluttered fingers at Kriegsman. “I just confirmed
Sasaki’s messages, Colonel. He was trying to alert StelFleet to our operation. Fortunately, I was
able to prevent our little traitor here from sending them.” He aimed the flutter at me. “She’s all
yours, Colonel.”
“Gobbing bitch.” Kriegsman yanked my arm up so hard my bones bent. “You don’t know
how lucky you are I don’t have time to interrogate you.” He shoved me at one of his waiting
stooges. “Execute the bitch.”
“Oh, no, not yet!” Roy fluttered fingers at the goon holding me and the man stopped. “I was
able to block the messages. But we need them decoded, and soon.”
“I don’t have time for games, Major. We are go in one hour.” Kriegsman jerked his chin and
the Streiker recruit manhandled me toward the doors.
“Killing her now is an unnecessary risk. She’s been hanging out with the Sisterhood. Those
women all have Lupan ties. At very least we need to find out whether she has succeeded in
subverting them.” Roy made a show of thinking. “Why not let me handle her? I’m not needed for
the launch, after all.”
“You couldn’t find anything out in time to be of use. And I’ll have those bitches in the
Sisterhood executed as soon as we’re loaded.” Kriegsman motioned for the goon and we started
forward again.
“You silly chit.” The mix of incredulity and contempt in Roy’s voice made Kriegsman whirl,
neural rod coming up.
“You just pushed your luck past the breaking point.” Kriegsman stalked back toward the
Sprite, neural rod weaving, snake-like, in his hand. The polar bear holding me skipped out of his
way with enthusiasm, dragging me with him. The change in position gave me a fresh view of
Roy.
The Sprite dismissed the danger in the neural rod with a sniff. “You really don’t know who
she is, do you?”
My stomach dropped into my toes. I could face a firing squad. But not the horror of what
Kriegsman would do to me. Suddenly, my life’s goal shrank to the all-consuming desire to make
the gobbers shoot me now.
“Gob you!” Throwing my weight onto my captor’s hands I kicked up, hard. I felt my boot toe
smack into the man’s forehead. I kept my feet up, used my full weight to pull the goon off-
balance. Monkey’s luck. Gods-be-damned polar bear just bent over with me. “You want me
dead,” I shouted at Roy, “you go ahead and shoot me yourself! But you know I’m no traitor!”
No go. Kriegsman glared at him for a moment. Then he jerked his head at the captain’s chair.
His stooge dragged me over to the chair and shoved my fingers into the sync link. My stomach
heaved as the link spun me into the unreal, infinite, Neverland that was ShipMind. I felt the
tingle as ShipMind linked my ID into all the various lobes of NetMind. And this time I felt the
spinning wheels click round to line up and lock. NetMind had finally pieced my ID together.
I heard Kriegsman’s gasp. Then he started to laugh.
I nearly sobbed in terror. I remembered that laugh. In desperation I threw myself out of the
chair at him. I managed to break the sync link but Kriegsman jumped back before I could crush
his larynx.
Still laughing, he slapped the neural wand across my cheek. Its touch exploded through every
nerve in my body. My last thought as the world faded out was that I’d failed both Romeo and
myself. My last hope was that I’d never wake up.
Chapter 12
So much for hope. I came awake in darkness. I pulled in a breath, regretted it on all counts.
Inhaling made my lungs hurt like I’d torched them. The stink of old blood and shit made
breathing a curse. Worse, it was a familiar curse.
I tried to cover my nose. Cold metal bit my wrist. I came awake the rest of the way and
realized I was chained to the wall in one of Kriegsman’s cells. Somehow, I was not surprised.
Somewhere near my right metal clinked and a man groaned. “Romeo?”
“Still here,” his voice answered. “Still pinned.” Metal rattled in the darkness. “Which is why a
pair of Aryan interrogators still live.”
Damn. I leaned my head against the damp wall. “I’m sorry. I thought I had
a chance to get us
out. Should’ve known better.”
“You did what you could.” I heard him grunt as he tried to shift position. It sounded pained.
“You okay? Kriegsman promised me he’d keep his goons to himself –”
“Surprise. He lied.” Romeo uhfed. “At least my feet are now on the ground. For that I thank
you. And it could have been worse. They only used rubber hoses, not those damned neural
wands.”
“I bet it was Roy’s idea.”
“He had nothing to do with it. Trust me on it.”
“You joking? Who the hell you think got me stuck in here?”
“Roy would never have me tortured.”
“Yeah, right. That miserable little flutterbutt played us both!” I yanked at my chains, wishing
it was Roy’s neck. “Gods damned, gobbing, vicious little…” I ran out of words. It did not make
me feel any better to dwell on the fact I’d been sawyered by a gods-be-damned joy toy myself.
On the other hand, hating Roy kept my mind off the sheer terror of what Kriegsman had in store
for me. I kept talking to stop myself from gibbering. “So, how come you’re so sure of that boy
all of a sudden, huh? You two got something going on?”
“Do I scent jealousy?”
I wished he didn’t sound so hopeful about it. Or that my heart didn’t flutter in turn. Hope was
something I was working real hard at forgetting. But wasn’t any point in pretending now. “Yeah,
probably. Much as I hate to admit it.”
“Myself as well.” To my shock, Romeo chuckled. “If I still believed in wishes, then I would
wish you were the one I found outside the bridge.”
“Makes two of us. So…” His words finally registered. “Wait a minute. What do you mean
‘outside the bridge’?”
A narrow shaft of brilliance cut off whatever answer Romeo had in mind. The sound of the
door locks triggering triggered a wash of terror. ”Listen –” I dropped my voice to an urgent
whisper. “Doesn’t matter what you think of him. That boy’s sweet on you. And Roy’s got pull. I
saw him make Kriegsman back down. Twice. So If you gotta gob him to survive, go for it. He’s
the only way you’re going to get out of here.”
“And you?”
I didn’t need to answer. He could smell my terror. I squeezed my knees together to keep from
adding a worse stink to it.
A shadow stepped into the shaft of light from the hall. It was a man big enough his shoulders
brushed the doorway on either side. Aryan, too: his white-blond hair spun the hall light into a
halo around his head. His broad build blocked enough light to let me make out the sheen of a
plasti-form apron against his black uniform: an interrogator. My stomach clenched. Hadn’t
expected Kriegsman to send one of his goons to do his dirty work. Sonuvabitch must really have
his hands full if he was bypassing this opportunity. He knew by now what I’d done to his
buddies.
The Aryan strolled in, shoving the door wider on the way. The hall light gleamed on the
folding table and devices he carried. My mouth went dry at the thought of what those devices
were designed to do to the human body.
“Aren’t you afraid the guards will hear us scream?” I managed to sound a helluva lot braver
than I felt.
“Oh, no worries.” Bastard smiled at me. “They’re used to it.”
Squinting into the light I saw a second, slender figure step out of the Aryan’s shadow. This
one was dressed in the deep space blue uniform of a Special Ops officer. With a rainbow scarf
thrown in for good measure. “Roy?”
“Of course. You didn’t think I’d miss this, did you?” He stepped away from the brute to salute
me with the neural wand he held. “Isn’t this just lovely? All three of us together again.” He
waved the wand airily. “We have so much to chat about!”
“Where shall I put the table?” The brutal side of Roy’s team clearly wasn’t happy with all the
chitchat. He wiggled the table and its horrors at Roy for emphasis.
“Oh, just set the table down back there.” Roy fluttered the wand toward the darkness beyond
the light shaft. “Our Kat likes to kick things.”
He watched the fellow disappear into the dark, then turned to step up to me. My eyes were
accustomed enough to the light now for me to see his face. The scars Romeo’d given him had
healed into fine, pale threads. His nose wasn’t quite perfect anymore but he managed to make the
flaw look dashing. It was his eyes that made me bite back a whimper. Those big baby browns
looked just as sweet and innocent as ever. Right now they scared me more than the neural wand
did.
“Oh, poor little kitty kat.” He lifted the wand to my cheek and I braced for agony.
Nothing. Just the tickle of its cold plastiform tip along my jaw line. I yelped anyway, from the
shock alone.
“Gotcha,” Roy sang. He stepped back and motioned to the brute. “Unchain this one.”
The Aryan pulled a link key from a pocket. I tried to kick him when he touched the link to the
chains binding my wrists but he sidestepped. Then backhanded me hard enough to make my
knees buckle. He punched me in the gut before he yanked me upright by one arm.
A whiff of Jungle Gardenia overrode the cell stink. Roy was leaning over me. He brought his
lips to my ear. “Scream.”
He tapped the wand against my nose. I howled before I even realized there was no pain.
Above me, a man’s shriek added itself to mine. Then the Aryan’s body dropped on top of me.
My screech ended in an ooof.
“Well, don’t just lie there!” Roy grunted. “Move! Oh, gods, this meat cake’s heavy!”
“Get Romeo,” I gasped. I could barely manage that much: I was trapped under the brute’s
armpit. At this range he smelled worse than the cell.
I felt Roy rummaging the brute’s pocket. Metal clicked. Then the weight lifted off my back
and I staggered to my feet. Somewhere nearby I heard a suspicious, meaty crack. Squinting, I
saw the Aryan dangling from Romeo’s chains by one arm. His face was twisted back over the
shoulder so his dead eyes stared at the wall. The rest of him was draped over Roy. The Sprite did
not look happy.
“Now, for gods’ sake,” Roy hissed, “will one of you start screaming?”
Keeping my eyes on the door, I yowled while Roy manhandled the corpse into the rest of the
chains. Romeo braced himself against the wall, massaging life back into his arms. I turned to
make sure Romeo was okay, saw Roy run fingers over Romeo’s ribs. To my surprise Romeo
didn’t knock his hand away.
“I’m so sorry.” Roy’s voice was barely a whisper, but there was real sorrow in it. “I never
meant for them to hurt you.”
“Forget it. I survived.” Romeo ducked away from the boy’s lingering fingers. “How about
you? I’m surprised you got through it okay.”
“You shouldn’t be.” Roy massaged his own ribs, his smile sad. “You should know by now
I’m tougher than I look.”
Oh, gobbin’ gods in their heavens…understanding struck home at last. “You’re mated.” The
very word turned my mouth sour. I fixed my eyes on Romeo. “That’s what you meant about
wishing…” Damn, if I didn’t shut up I was going to cry.
“Exactly. I mistook this one –” Romeo pointed an ear at Roy – “for a woman.
”
“Only he didn’t finish the Impression,” Roy whispered. He stayed clear of Romeo, though the
tension in his body said the effort cost him. “Instead, he…” He flicked fingers at his face.
“So there’s still hope?” I tried – and failed – to keep the eagerness out of my voice.
“Unless you talk us to death first!” Roy stepped away from the Aryan’s dangling corpse. I
caught a flicker of something – sadness? Jealousy? in the Sprite’s expression. He looked away
too quick for me to be sure. Whatever it’d been, he was all business now.
He pushed the cell door closed, nodded us over to it. “Three guards in the antechamber,” he
whispered. He poked me – hard – and mimed for me to shriek. I obeyed, making Romeo shy
away from me, too. “Two at the hall entrance,” Roy muttered. “One at the outside door. I’ll take
out the one near the door. You two –”
I interrupted Roy with a fist in his collar. “I’m not going anywhere till I know what the hell
you’re up to. Who are you selling us to this time?”
“I’m on our side, dip wit!” Roy pouted, but he broke my grip with a professional’s ease.
“Yeah, and which ‘ours’ is that?”
“Oh, for…” Little bastard actually rolled his eyes. “Why in all the hells do you think I was on
that silly freighter, anyway? I was Sasaki’s back-up!”
“Say what?”
“The politicos have been suspicious of Kriegsman and his sponsors for some time. But we
couldn’t locate this damn base. My job was to send StelFleet the base coordinates as soon as the
freighter dropped into system. Only Sasaki used those damned mutating codes.” He threw
Romeo a prissy glare. “And a certain furry person’s damned scouts blew the ship before he gave
me the new key.”
“It’s truth,” Romeo grunted. “Roy’s people alerted us to the possibility of a rogue base in this
region. That’s why we had a pack hunting this quadrant.”
Events started to click into place. I frowned at Roy. “So that’s why you needed to get back
onto the freighter. You finished sending those messages. You notified StelFleet.”
“I tried to notify StelFleet.” Roy glanced around the door, looking unhappy. “But that damn
engineer and her chooms destroyed the comm links. And Kriegsman’s already got the base
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