by Rachel Aukes
He scrutinized her for a moment. “You make it sound too easy, like you can just waltz into her home and kidnap her.”
“That’s exactly what I plan to do,” Throttle said.
He cocked his head in her direction. “She could suspect we’re working together.”
“I doubt it. She stole my colony ship and couldn’t get me to work with her. You stole my other ship, so why would she think I’d have any more inclination to work with you? Besides, unless she has eyes on your side of Jade-8, she still thinks I’m hiding in the gutters.”
His brow rose. “You were in the gutters?”
“Surprised?”
“Only that you’re still alive.” He leaned forward. “So let me get this straight. You’ll deliver my sister, unharmed, to me. In exchange, all I have to do is give you your ships back.”
“And all the people and supplies that came in on them,” Throttle added. “You’re not losing anything you didn’t have three days ago, but you’d be gaining all of Jade-8.”
“I think you oversimplify matters, but without a contract from me, there’s no way she can tie us together, other than you living in one of my apartments. But it’s standard procedure for visitors to stay on the side of Jade-8 that they’ve docked.”
“No connections. Not until she’s at your doorstep,” Throttle agreed.
Jakob stood and held out his hand. “We have a deal. My sister, unharmed, for your property.”
Throttle came to her feet and shook his hand. “I’ll need credits to pick up some supplies.”
He opened a desk drawer and pulled out a pass-card. “High-roller visitors receive preloaded guest pass-cards to use throughout Jade City. There are fifty thousand credits on this, but that’s as much as I can help without running the risk of drawing attention to our partnership. It’ll be up to you to move around Jade City without being caught by Anna’s security forces.”
Throttle took the pass-card. “Leave that to me.”
When she turned to go, he spoke. “Timing may be of the essence. I saw that all the contracts for the passengers on board the Gabriela have been sold in an online auction. That means the warehouse unit in which they’re being stored will probably be tugged away from here within three days’ time.”
Throttle gave a tight nod. “No problem. Our deal will be wrapped up before then. Until then, you keep your hands off my ship.”
Chapter Fourteen
By the time Throttle returned to the apartment, energy was no longer being fed to her left leg brace. She’d locked the brace straight and had to drag her stiff leg behind her as she walked. At least Don and his goons hadn’t escorted her back, so they weren’t there to mock her. She was developing a strong dislike for Jaders.
She hadn’t even stepped over the threshold when Birk rushed forward to help her inside.
“My braces could use a tune-up,” she said before he could say anything, and then she turned to make eye contact with Nolin and Finn as well. “The deal’s been made, exactly as we covered.”
Finn gave a small nod. Nolin gulped and leaned back.
“Let’s hope West plays nice during plan A, so we don’t have to implement plan B,” Birk said before grabbing his bag and refocusing his attention on her leg braces.
As Birk tinkered, Throttle went to her wrist-comm, where she’d programmed a specific radio frequency. She brought up the frequency, which was silence blanketed by a veneer of static. She sent three beeps over the radio waves. She waited. When there was no response, she sent three beeps again. Growing nervous, she was about to send another round of beeps, when the response came.
One click, followed by a two-second delay, followed by another click.
Relieved, Throttle sent a beep, which was echoed by a click. She let out a breath. “They’re still with us,” she said and turned to Nolin. “You want to fill in the rest of the crew back on the Javelin?”
Nolin nodded and began swiping his fingers over his wrist-comm to tap out the message.
“We might be able to pull this thing off after all,” Birk said without looking up from his work.
Finn pushed to his feet and headed to the door. “I’ll go pick up some food. I’m guessing we’ll need it.”
Two hours later, Birk was still working on her leg braces, even after the four of them covered every possible way the plan could go awry.
Food wrappers cluttered the floor, and Nolin bent to scoop up the wrappers and placed them on the counter next to a stack of extra food bars. He grabbed four bars and handed out one to each person, tucking his into a jacket pocket.
“Finn, I find you to be not such a bad guy, all in all,” Birk began. “But that was the worst meal I’ve ever had. Couldn’t you find something that doesn’t have the texture of tofu?”
Finn shook his head. “Everything at the store was just different flavored bars and powders. I’m guessing people find ways to get creative with the food; otherwise, they’d all have given up eating by now.” He then motioned toward the remaining food. “It’ll be worse once we run out. I burned through all my credits on that stuff.”
“You had a thousand credits,” Birk said.
Finn nodded. “The clerk said that Jade-8 is dealing with pretty bad inflation. Sounds like East and West are in a spending contest, trying to outdo the other, and just keep printing credits to keep it up.”
Nolin shook his head. “I feel sorry for the people who live here. This colony is on the verge of collapse.”
“Let’s hope we’re far away from here by the time that happens,” Throttle said before running a hand through her hair. “I don’t like that the entire mission rides on Mutt’s guy. He’d better be as good as Mutt says he is.”
“We’ll make it work,” Finn said. “If it doesn’t, we’ll find another way.”
“It has to work. We have eight hundred and forty-four sleepers counting on us,” Nolin said.
She glanced at the time on her wrist-comm. “It’s time.”
Birk, still kneeling, leaned back on his heels. “Your leg braces need an overhaul, which is going to take a lot more tools and a whole lot more time than we have, but I think I’ve got the connectors patched for now. Try it out.”
She pushed to her feet. The left brace clicked but held. She bent a couple of times; each time the sound bothered her. “How long do you think it’ll hold?”
“I’d say it’ll hold as long as you take it easy, but we both know you won’t take it easy. So…” He shrugged. “Who knows?”
“I’ll try to be easy on it,” Throttle said and almost meant it.
Birk chuckled. “I’ve heard that before.”
She checked the pistol he’d given her earlier, to find it with a full charge, and holstered it. She looked across the faces of her team. That none looked like they bore any doubts gave her more confidence. “Let’s go.”
They took the elevator down to where Cinder had last left them. Throttle waited for a family of Jaders to walk by before tapping on the tunnel entrance. Barely a second lapsed before Throttle heard the sound of a wheel turning and the door opened. Cinder motioned them through the door. As soon as everyone was in the tunnel, the teenaged girl closed and locked the door from the inside.
Her headlamp was on, which helped light the dim tunnel. Without a word, she motioned for them to follow as she led them through winding tunnels. She didn’t stop until they emerged in a wider tunnel that was well lit.
“We split up here,” Cinder said bluntly. “We’re coming up on Jade City.”
Birk showed the girl his wrist-comm. “Here are the supplies we need,” he said. “Finn and I will go with you to carry everything. East isn’t after us that we know of, so no one should bug us.”
Cinder’s gaze flashed down the list. “We can buy the kits, so we’ll start with those. Just about everything else I should be able to get from a friend of a friend. But that one…” She frowned and pointed at the last item on the list. “That’s a tricky one. It’s impossible to buy, and I don�
�t know how we can steal that without getting noticed.”
Birk grinned. “Luckily for you, I’m the best thief around.”
Cinder didn’t seem convinced.
Throttle stepped forward and handed the girl the guest pass-card from Jakob West. “Good luck.”
The girl stepped back and pocketed the pass-card. She faced Throttle and pointed down the tunnel. “Take the third left, first right, first right, fourth right, second left, and go to the first intersection. Walter will meet you there.”
Throttle repeated the directions in her head as she heard Nolin repeat them out loud. She gave a nod to Cinder. “Thanks for your help. Any leftover credits on that card are yours, but you’d better spend them fast.” She then eyed Finn and Birk. “See you over there.”
The group split, with Cinder leading Finn and Birk to the right, and Throttle and Nolin walking left.
Throttle and Nolin took the third turn into a narrow, darker tunnel. Without a flashlight, they were forced to move slower. Nolin repeated the directions over and over. Throttle didn’t mind. It was easy enough to miss a turn in the dimly lit tunnels. She found Nolin’s rhythmic repetitions helpful; they gave her something to focus on besides the clicking in her left brace. By the time they reached the intersection, which was empty, she began to second-guess herself. Had they missed a turn? Messed up the directions?
She looked down the tunnel from which they’d come, and considered retracing her steps, when she heard a sound. She looked back and peered down each of the four tunnels spreading out from the intersection to find a hunched-over person shuffling his feet as he slowly made his way to Throttle and Nolin.
As the newcomer approached, Throttle made out the individual to be an old man in a ragged trench coat. The pack he wore made him look more of a hunchback than he was. He didn’t look up until he reached them. Even then, he moved stiffly, unable to look Throttle in the eyes, like his neck couldn’t straighten.
Throttle felt a lump form in her gut. If this was the guy who would make or break the mission, they were screwed. “Are you Walter?” she asked.
“Yep. That’s me,” the man said, and the lump in her gut became a rock.
“I’m Throttle. This is Nolin,” she said. “We’re assisting you, assuming you’re up to it.”
“Oh, this body may be a bit brittle, and I might move slower than you’d like, but my mind is just fine.” He tapped his temple before smiling. “Though if one of you wants to carry my bag, I won’t complain.”
Nolin moved quickly to help untangle the bag from Walter’s shoulders and slung it over his.
Walter stood somewhat taller and winced. “That’s better.” He pointed down a tunnel. “Now, we should get started.”
Throttle and Nolin walked alongside Walter as he led them through the tunnels.
“I thought my joints cracked and creaked, but I think you have me beat,” Walter said.
Throttle tapped her leg braces. “If it wasn’t for these beaten-up pieces of hardware, I’d be in a wheelchair.”
His brow furrowed as he looked at them as he walked. “Interesting. I’d love to see how they worked sometime. There’s a boy back at the camp who could use something like that.”
“It’s mostly a bunch of straps powered by a battery pack. I’d be happy to let you take a look after all this is behind us.”
They continued their journey. The interminably slow pace was softened by the old man’s stories of Jade-8.
“You ever hear the history of Jade-8?” Walter asked.
Throttle shook her head. “No.”
“My family was part of the earliest Jaders,” the old man said. “They worked on the water systems back when Gerrold West founded the waystation. Back then, ships still needed to stop to refuel. All the Jade stations were funded by the Japanese, and they made a killing off travelers. Jade-8 was the eighth station they built; I bet there are hundreds of Jade stations out there now.
“Travelers would come and go, but every now and then a group would stay for some reason or another. Over time, the waystation became a colony, and Jade-8 began to expand. Times have never been easy living in space, but the earliest years of Jade-8 were the worst. They averaged an environmental failure once a month. A lot of people died back then. But Gerrold West managed to keep the colony growing. He had a knack at working deals and bringing in the supplies that were needed most. Eventually, the colony became self-sufficient, and West turned the keys over to his daughter, Geneva. Jade-8’s always been under the leadership of the West family, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the latest family members are the last of their line.”
“I take it you’re not a fan of West and East,” Throttle said.
Walter cursed before speaking again. “Too many generations spent away from Jaders, that’s what happened to that family. They treat Jade-8 like a business and not a colony. They don’t look after the people who keep Jade-8 running.” He held out a hand with disfigured fingers. “I’d apprenticed in the water systems since I could walk, and I worked there until East dropped my contract. You see, I’ve got RA—that’s rheumatoid arthritis—but she didn’t care about my disability. My output no longer met the minimums, and that was all that mattered. Without a paycheck, I ended up in the gutters, like so many other Jaders. Until the past few years, there were hardly any gutter rats, but the East-West rivalry has made it hard on us Jaders. So we had to get hard to protect ourselves.”
“I don’t blame you for wanting to get some payback,” Nolin said.
Walter stopped walking. “I’m not doing this because I’m a disgruntled ex-contractor. I’m doing this so Jaders don’t die in the gutters. I want to see my people live in a place where they won’t be invisible. You don’t know how many people have pinned their hopes on you two.”
“We won’t let them down,” Throttle said. “I made a deal with Mutt, and I don’t break my deals.”
They came up to a door, and he stopped. “We’re coming up on the room that houses the workstations for all the East environmentals, but we’re not going in there.”
“What? Why?” Throttle asked.
“All systems are under surveillance all the time.” He raised his hand weakly and pointed up the ladder near the door. “So we’re going to climb into the water systems themselves. Give me my bag.”
Nolin unslung the bag, and Walter rifled through the contents. He pulled out the start of a nylon cord, and Nolin helped pull out the rest.
“I can’t climb ladders, so I need you to lift me up.”
“But that’ll hurt you,” Nolin said.
“Oh, it will hurt all right, but you’re young and strong, so I’m hoping you won’t jar me around too much.”
Nolin swallowed and looked none too confident. “I’ll do my best.”
Throttle shook her head. “Tell us what to do, and you can stay down here.”
Walter held up a hand. “No. While you can do some of it, only I can run the backdoor program to unlock the system without setting off alarms.”
She pursed her lips but didn’t oppose him.
Nolin began tying knots in the cord.
“You a fisherman?” Walter asked.
Nolin nodded. “Everyone in my family was—is. My home world is mostly water, so everyone fished from the moment they could crawl.”
“I could tell. I haven’t seen a surgeon’s knot in quite some time.”
Nolin frowned. “We call it the highwater knot where I come from.”
As Nolin continued to form a harness, Walter rummaged through his bag. This time, he pulled out a round roll of black tape. “Come here, my girl. Let me get a closer look at your legs.”
Throttle stepped closer. He touched the brace near her knee, where it’d been clicking, and tapped a metal pin. It clicked.
“The pin’s loose. Looks like the housing is worn out.” He tore off a length of the tape and wrapped it several times around her left brace. “Try taking a step. It’s not too tight, I hope.”
Throttle too
k several steps, all without a click. She turned back to him, surprised.
“The duct tape will wear down. It’s only a stopgap, but it should get you by for a few days.”
Her jaw loosened. “Thank you. I’ve never seen any tape like this before.”
“It works on just about anything. And if it doesn’t work, then that usually means it can’t be fixed.” He gave a small grimace. “Obviously, your tech is ahead of much of what we use here on Jade-8. We Jaders are far behind Solsters in terms of technology, though we’re not nearly as behind as Earthers.”
“I thought everyone in this system are Solsters,” Throttle mused.
“Just because all our ancestors came from Sol doesn’t make us Solsters. Just like you claim to be a Trappist because that’s where you were born, I’m a Jader because I was born here. Earthers are the only humans left who hadn’t left to colonize another world or moon. Those who remained on Earth became so set in their ways that they didn’t move forward when the rest of the colonies made progress. From what I’ve heard, they’ve even given up their ambition for space travel, content with their world.” He shook his head. “But you’re not here for a humanities lesson, are you?”
She looked at Nolin, who lifted the cord. He spoke. “I have a harness ready. Let’s get it on you, sir.”
Throttle and Nolin worked slowly and carefully to fit the cord around Walter’s legs, arms, and torso. The old man winced but never complained. When they finished, Nolin fashioned a quick harness for himself.
Throttle slung Walter’s bag over her shoulders and looked to Nolin. “You go first. I’ll support Walter from behind.”
Nolin nodded and moved to the ladder. He climbed three rungs before any slack in the cord was gone. Throttle steadied Walter by holding his shoulders, and Nolin lifted Walter’s full weight.
