by Terry Mixon
He went back to the MOSO security center with Shelby. Detective Huddleston was off shift, but one of her compatriots started the necessary paperwork to get Mike out. Brad had to pay a fairly impressive fine—that was going to come out of Mike’s salary—but everything was in motion.
The detective told them it would be a few hours to get everything taken care of, so they didn’t wait around. Mike would find his own way back to the ship. Let him spend the time worrying about how Brad was going to tear a strip off his hide when this was all over.
With that taken care of, he followed Shelby back to the area of the station reserved for small craft. There was a Fleet shuttle waiting.
“You’ll need to let Petty Officer Ramirez lock up your weapons,” Shelby said. “Sorry. Fleet policy.”
As much as Brad disliked that, he knew he wouldn’t be able to negotiate. Just like the security station.
It was probably a good idea in any case. He was about to get into a screaming match with a Fleet commodore. It was best he did that without handy weapons, particularly with his new hair-trigger temper.
Brad removed his weapons belt and handed it to the Fleet noncom. “Take good care of them.”
“You bet, Captain. I’ll make sure you get them back right quick once you’re done, too.”
“Raul is one of my best people,” Shelby said. “Your gear is in good hands.”
The trip out to Eternal was uneventful. Brad took advantage of the port beside his seat to get a good look at the massive warship. The pilot must’ve been taking that into account, because they were passing close with an eye toward his side of the shuttle.
The battleship dwarfed even the largest freighters he’d ever seen. It probably wouldn’t be fast, but it had more weapons than he could possibly imagine. Marines, too. It was probably stuffed full of fighting men. Why couldn’t a ship like this one find the Terror and his base?
The bay they landed in was larger than Heart of Vengeance. That was a somewhat-humbling experience, but he made sure to keep his expression schooled. He was there to make a point. Gawking like a tourist wouldn’t help him.
Shelby escorted him off the shuttle and into the crowded corridors. “I’ll take you to the commodore’s office and then wait outside for you. Like I said, I’d rather not get any of this on me.”
“Good luck with that.”
The captain chuckled. “Too true.”
Once they reached the right deck, he led Brad to a compartment that was the same size as Heart’s bridge—so easily twice the size of Brad’s office. That was where the commodore’s assistant sat at her desk. The young woman—a lieutenant, by her rank tabs—looked up when they stepped inside.
“Captain Shelby. The commodore said to see you in once you arrived.”
She gave Brad a curious glance but didn’t ask any questions as she rose from behind her desk. The woman knocked twice on a hatch to the rear of the compartment and opened it without waiting for a response.
“Commodore, Captain Shelby is here to see you. He’s brought a guest.”
“Send them in.”
That wasn’t a man’s voice.
Brad had only a moment to adjust his assumption before Shelby led him into his commanding officer’s presence.
Commodore Bailey’s office was absolutely palatial. It could have easily held three of her assistant’s compartment. It was tastefully decorated in subdued colors. None of the furniture seemed expensive, but it all matched. Unlike Brad’s.
The commodore stood from behind her desk. From the way Shelby had spoken about her, Brad had expected a disagreeable man. What he got was a very small woman with golden hair in a neat Fleet uniform.
“Captain Shelby,” she said, her voice a high alto. “I didn’t expect you back so soon. Or for you to bring me a surprise guest.”
Her tone indicated the man had some explaining to do.
“Sorry, I had to improvise. Commodore Angel Bailey, meet Captain Brad Madrid of Heart of Vengeance and commanding officer of the Vikings.”
She let her gaze rest on Shelby long enough to promise trouble and then focused her attention on Brad. “Wait outside, Captain Shelby. We’ll talk in a little while. Come in, Captain Madrid. We have much to discuss.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Park it, Captain,” Commodore Bailey said as she resumed her seat. “I assume Captain Shelby conveyed my requirements to you. Do you have any questions?”
“Just one,” Brad said as he took the indicated seat. “What in the world makes you think I’ll let you push me or my people around like this?”
She smiled without humor. “I would think that was obvious.”
Her attitude set him to seething inside. “Then you’re in for a rude awakening. I told Captain Shelby I don’t negotiate with blackmailers. Too much like obeying pirates. Things never turn out well.”
The woman eyed him and then leaned back in her seat. “So, you’d rather let your man go to jail? That’s not very loyal.”
“I’m wondering what you’d know about loyalty. You could have contacted me directly and made this just a business transaction. You chose to make it personal.
“Captain Shelby has some basic human decency. He dropped the charges. That’s why I’m letting you talk. You have nothing to hold over my people now.”
Her expression clouded. “He had no authority to do that.”
“You want to talk about authority? You had none to give that order. We both know it. If I pushed the matter, I could get you in some hot water over it, too. Let’s stop playing these games. Tell me what you want so that I can tell you to get stuffed. I have a busy day ahead of me.”
Her eyes narrowed as she sat up straight. “You’ve got a lot of balls, sitting in my office, talking to me that way.”
“So I hear. You apparently have none, since your first impulse is to use leverage to get me to do what you want. Tell me, how does it feel, commanding a powerful ship like this? One that never leaves orbit to actually fight? It might as well be a defense station.
“Is that how you ended up commanding it instead of a real warship? They didn’t trust you with a mobile platform in a real fight? Are you the desk-bound paper-pusher you look like?”
Those were fighting words. Ones he’d carefully worked out ahead of time to provoke a furious reaction. He had to admit he was getting far more satisfaction provoking this fight than he’d expected. He really was having problems.
Oddly, the words seemed to have the opposite effect from what he’d intended. Bailey actually chuckled as she leaned back in her chair again.
“I like a man that isn’t afraid to come out swinging. I don’t have to defend myself to you, but I commanded a cruiser for years. I’ve fought and killed more pirates than you’ll ever see.”
“It doesn’t seem to have done that good of a job. There’s still plenty out there. Cut to the chase, Commodore. Why play these games?”
“Honestly? I’ve never had much respect for mercenaries,” she said with a hint of distaste. “If you want to get the best effort out of them, you have to assert dominance.
“I also can’t stand Randall and I’m a vindictive bitch. Trust me when I say that he caused me more than enough trouble to deserve this.”
She crossed her legs. “You’re one cool customer, Captain. I’m as impressed as I am annoyed. Perhaps I made a mistake in approaching the situation like this.”
“I’d say.” Brad stood. “I’m sure you have a lot of work ahead of you now that you need to muscle someone else into working for you. If you’ll excuse me, I need to get some fresh air. I figure fifteen light-seconds ought to do the trick.”
“At least hear me out. You’ve come all this way. Why not let me finish? Aren’t you the least bit curious?”
He had to admit that he was, now that the demon inside him had been denied the fight it craved. “I can’t imagine any set of circumstances where I agree to work for you.”
“What if it involved slavers? You have some histor
y with them. Can you honestly tell me you wouldn’t want to stick a finger in their eye, Captain Madrid? Or should I call you Brad the Dutchman?”
Maybe she’d done a little research on him, after all.
“You do know how to troll people, don’t you?” he asked slowly. “You could’ve led with that and it would’ve made both our lives easier.”
“True, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun. Though I have to admit that you fighting back makes this more satisfying. I do love a good fight. Please, sit back down and at least hear what I have to say.”
Brad warily sat. She knew his history back to Freedom. Did she know more? As in who he really was? There was only one way to know for sure.
“How is Captain Fields?”
“He’s good. I contacted him to get a feel for you once I knew who Randall was working for. I assume you recovered your memories, since you pulled that disappearing act on Ceres. That really got them excited, but they still traced you to Ganymede.
“That let me see how you really feel about slavers. That’s a positive point with me, by the way. I wish we could kill them all.”
“Then why don’t you?”
She pursed her lips. “I think someone in Fleet’s chain of command is working with them. Them and the Cadre. They’ve managed to consistently avoid engagements with us, and anytime we get word about one of their hideouts, they’re long gone when we get there.”
“So, why aren’t you cleaning out your moles?”
“Who says we aren’t? Someone broke into your new ship and stole the computer core. We sent one of our investigators to have a chat with you, and I believe she left a folder full of information for you to study. That’s because we believe it had to be the slavers.”
Brad nodded. “I’d agree with that assessment, but I’m not sure why that would make me work with you on anything. After all, you could be in league with them.”
“You wound me,” Commodore Bailey said. “Would I order Lieutenant Greer to read you in if I was working with the slavers?”
“That implies you were the one who ordered her to do it,” he shot back. “You might be lying or playing some deeper game. You seem to be that kind of person. Cut to the chase, Commodore.”
She sighed. “You’re no fun. We believe the slavers aren’t done with you yet. There’s been chatter about your ship. Did you know they’ve put a price on your head? Rather, on your ship. A cool million credits for its verified destruction.”
That was a surprise. “I had no idea. I’m still not sure why that leads you to harass my crew.”
Commodore Bailey leaned forward. “I need someone that can act in places Fleet cannot. Someone with a grudge and some skin in the game. You seem like the perfect candidate to me. I can smell the rage inside you. You want to kill them all.”
“I won’t lie,” he admitted. “I hate the slavers almost as much as I hate the Cadre. I’d be willing to do a lot to take them down.”
“What if I told you they’re linked?”
He shrugged. “That’s not too surprising. Piracy and slave trading seem to go hand in hand.”
She turned to her computer and tapped on a few keys. A screen on the bulkhead came to life, showing a meeting of some kind in progress. The long conference room was filled with rough characters. Based on the odd angle, Brad suspected the camera had been concealed.
The figure at the head of the table was all too familiar to him. It was the Terror.
Just the image of him sent a pulse a hot rage through him. He felt his hands grip the arms on his chair hard enough to threaten their integrity.
“This was taken by an operative we managed to get into a meeting between the slavers and the Cadre. We haven’t identified most of the people, and our man vanished shortly after sending us this image. I assume you know the Terror.”
Brad forced his hands to relax. “You know I do.”
“Two of the people in this image were killed on the ship you now call Heart of Vengeance. This is a high-level meeting. You can see why those two facts strike me as odd.”
It was odd. In fact, it was damned odd. Why would slavers of this high rank be involved in attacking the Louisiana Rain?
“I’ll admit you’ve caught my attention,” he said after a long moment. “I still don’t see what you want from me.”
She smiled. “I want you to be the bait for a trap. One the slavers will come running to spring.”
Brad wanted to say no. He really did. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Instead, he drove a hard bargain. Bailey wanted him to put his ship at risk, knowing that the slavers would almost certainly attack. As much as he wanted to kill slavers, he couldn’t take that kind of risk without ensuring his crew were well compensated.
Commodore Bailey put up only a token fight before conceding to his demands. It wasn’t as if she could get someone else to do the job. It was a seller’s market.
Satisfied with the terms while still being annoyed he had to work with the disagreeable woman, he made his way back to MOSO. Captain Shelby tried to get details, but Brad put him off. As much as he liked the man, he couldn’t be sure he didn’t work for the bad guys.
If this was going to work, he had to play things exceptionally close to the vest. That meant letting the rest of the universe think Heart’s circumstances were completely different from what they really were.
Shelby dropped him off at the boat bay and headed back for Eternal. Probably for an epic ass-chewing. He didn’t envy the man.
Brad headed back to Heart and discovered Mike had just arrived. He went to engineering and found the man looking over the work Jim had done while he was locked up.
“Got a second?” he asked the engineer.
“Maybe in an hour. I have to look at—”
“Let me rephrase,” Brad interrupted. “Take a break and come talk with me. Now.”
The burly engineer straightened and stared at him for a long moment. “Of course, Captain.”
He led the other man to his office and closed the hatch behind them. Marshal, Shelly, and Jason watched them enter without comment. The hatch was thick enough to stop them from hearing anything, even shouting. A distinct possibility, he thought.
“Sit,” Brad said as he moved behind the desk. “Tell me what happened last night. All of it.”
The other man sat in the chair set before the desk. Brad expected him to be defiant, but he looked abashed.
“I screwed up by the numbers. That’s the only way to say it.”
Brad made a rolling motion with his hand. “Details. I’ve spoken with Shelby. I want to hear your side before I tear a strip off you.
“And I expect you to take it. You made a point in telling me how you didn’t hold back in telling a superior when they’d screwed up. It’s your turn in the barrel.”
The big man slumped a little. “I deserve that. Weldon called me yesterday and asked to have a few drinks. I had more than a few while hashing over everything that had happened on Eternal back in the day.
“Then he asked if I could introduce the two of you. I didn’t let him blow hot air up my ass, and when he admitted Bailey was behind our meeting, I snapped. Words were exchanged and I shoved him.”
“And he called security?”
Randall shook his head. “No. There was an off-duty security officer sitting nearby. When the people around us pulled me off, he took me into custody. Shelby tried to talk him out of it, but they’re kind of strict on MOSO.”
Brad leaned back a little and considered the other man for a long moment. “Before we get into the rest, why is that? They’ve got a lot of security for a station in the Inner System.”
The engineer shrugged. “It probably has something to do with them being the interface to the Outer System. They get a lot of people thinking the same loose rules apply here as do out there. Needless to say, there’s some friction.”
Brad could see where that might be the case. It didn’t really explain things, but it was probably t
he best he’d get, just asking opinions.
He clasped his hands on top of his desk. “I arrived at the lockup thinking it was Marshal in the drunk tank. Frankly, I expected better of you. For God’s sake, you used to be a Fleet officer.”
The corner of the other man’s mouth twitched. “One cashiered for conduct unbecoming, so I’m not sure that counts. Look, I know I’ve screwed up. I should’ve just walked out of there as soon as I found out what the meeting was about. Shelby set me up, but I should’ve been smart enough to see it coming.”
“Yes, you should’ve been.”
He considered the engineer for a full thirty seconds. “The fine for drunk and disorderly is impressive. It’s coming out of your pay with an additional ten percent for my trouble. Considering what I’m doing for Bailey, I ought to charge you double.”
Randall straightened. “Tell me you didn’t let that bitch blackmail you. Tell her to go screw herself. Trust me, it feels good.”
“To be fair, Shelby dropped the charges even though Bailey ordered him to keep the pressure on,” Brad said. “I went to Eternal to tell her off in person, and I did. It was satisfying, but we’re still doing the job.”
The man’s eyes narrowed. “It’s something you want to do.”
“Something I need to do,” Brad admitted. “I’d have turned it down otherwise. I’ll brief everyone in a few minutes, but I needed to settle this first. In addition to paying the fine, you’re restricted to the ship during the next shore leave.
“And I expect you to do most of the menial chores in engineering over the next few weeks. Jim gets the easy stuff while you do your job and most of his. I’ll let it sit at that, but this better not happen again.”
“It won’t. I’m sorry, Captain. I really am.”
Brad rose to his feet. “I’ll take you at your word. Let’s go brief the crew on our next mission.”
Chapter Eighteen
Brad gathered his senior officers in the wardroom. Everyone was giving Mike surreptitious looks, except for Saburo. He was openly staring at the engineer with a grin on his face.
