Heart of Vengeance (Vigilante Book 1)
Page 27
The gravity was on inside the shuttle and he shot out like a sprinter off the line. A shout of surprise immediately preceded several pistol shots from up front. The other man hadn’t been quite ready.
Brad put several rounds into him and then grunted as someone shot him in the back, a heavy slug that punched through his suit’s armor. There were two of them!
Already feeling weaker, he rolled and slashed with his blade. The first swing was lucky and took half the man’s pistol and a number of his fingers.
That sent the ambusher staggering back, clawing at a blade on his belt with his off hand. He should’ve practiced the maneuver. And he should’ve paid more attention to Brad.
He was so focused on getting his weapon out that he stood there and let Brad cut his legs off at the knees. The strike was an automatic response he’d drilled far too many times to count. One he instantly regretted as it probably meant Breen would die before they questioned him.
Groaning with pain, Brad levered himself to his feet and kicked the blade clear of the man’s twitching hand. He saw it was Breen.
A look at the front of the shuttle told him the second man was dead in the control couch, his eyes staring sightlessly at the two living combatants.
Not that Breen was going to be alive more than a few seconds without medical assistance.
“Aren’t you going to save me for the critical information I could give you?” Breen gasped out.
“You mean you’d cooperate?” Brad asked as he sat heavily on the floor. He had to make the attempt, he supposed, as much as he wanted to just watch the man bleed out.
He grabbed the man’s safety line and wrapped it tightly around his bleeding stumps. The pulsing blood slowed to a trickle but didn’t stop.
“I figured you as the kind to hold out and taunt us with everything we’ll never get from you,” Brad said. “Or to lie. That was my second guess.”
The other man laughed weakly. “I suppose you know me better than I’d guessed. You think you’ve won, don’t you? I’ll tell you this for free. We’re only the leading edge. The Cadre will come for you soon enough.”
“We found Mader on Io, by the way,” Brad ventured.
That seemed to surprise the slaver. Then the man laughed again. “Serves the Cadre bastard right for underestimating you. After the hell he gave me, I only wish he’d come out to rub my face in it in person.
“I don’t know how you unraveled my organization like this, but the Cadre will just create another one. We’re useful to them.”
Breen was fading even with his severed limbs bound. Brad could see it in his color. The bleeding had been too intense and the man was going into shock. If he wanted answers to any questions, Brad had best ask them while the man was still alive.
“I’ve wondered since the start. Why Mandrake’s Heart? What did she have that drew the Terror in person? Not the cargo of monofilament. He could’ve sent anyone to capture it. He came himself.”
Breen was already sagging, but he smiled. “You’d be shocked if I told you. And don’t expect any of the crew to tell you. They aren’t here, though I hear the Terror kept his hands on some survivors. This base is nothing to what the Cadre has, by the way. You’ll probably find them there, suffering.”
The man used his good hand to rub his face. He’d taken the gloves off sometime after getting on the shuttle. “I imagined this moment. Thought I’d come out on top. Who the hell are you, Madrid?”
“The man who is going to end your organization and the Cadre once and for all.”
The demon inside Brad wanted to drag the dying slaver to the airlock and send him into the Dark in style, but he was so tired. Tired in a physical sense, but spiritually, too. He wasn’t going to let the demon have him. Not anymore.
Moments later, Breen’s breathing slowed and then stopped. The man was dead.
Rather than waiting for someone to come for him, Brad climbed to his feet, reoriented the shuttle, and headed for where Heart was hiding. He called ahead to let them know he was coming and was injured. That was the last thing he remembered doing.
Brad woke up in Freedom’s infirmary. There was a weird kind of symmetry to seeing the familiar ceiling again. At least this time, he still had his memories.
Dr. Merrine looked down at him as soon as he caught her attention by moving. “Ah, I see our guest is awake, again. Welcome back.”
“We need to stop meeting like this, Doctor.”
She laughed. “I heartily agree. Your crew rendezvoused with your shuttle and got you here as quickly as possible. You were shot twice and lost some blood but won’t have any permanent injuries.”
Not physically, anyway.
He knew better than to try to sit up. Instead, he relaxed. “What about this mission? Did we save the prisoners?”
The doctor rested her hand on his shoulder. “You did. Captain Fields just landed the marines. The asteroid base is fully under our control now, and you kept the slavers from harming their prisoners.”
Brad let out a shaky breath. “Did we catch any slavers?”
“Some, or so I hear. We won’t know the final count for a few hours. Rest.”
That proved easier than he’d have liked. Sleep took him in seconds.
He roused what felt like only seconds later but had a different woman staring down at him. No, two women.
“Agent Falcone. Factor Kernsky.” His voice sounded a trifle stronger.
“We’re glad to see you made it,” Falcone said. “Saburo was seriously pissed that you left him behind like that. He said something about trading ass-chewings with you.”
Brad laughed and then groaned as his back started hurting. “He should know better than to complain. You snooze, you lose.”
He groped for the glass of water and took a sip to gather his thoughts. “You’re up here. I figured you’d be down there, gathering intelligence.”
“We’ll get some, but not as much as I’d hoped. Breen wiped the computer. I’ll deal with the prisoners we caught and see if any of the ships we captured has data that will prove useful. It’s the best I can do.
“And in case no one told you, the mercenaries chased down every ship that ran. None got away. We made a clean sweep. Did Breen tell you anything useful?”
Brad shook his head. “Not really. That the Cadre would rebuild the slaver organization and that they’d be coming for us all soon enough. That this was their one main base and that the Cadre has at least one big one, too. That could have been a lie, though.”
He considered telling them what Breen had said about the crew of Mandrake’s Heart, but decided to keep that to himself. If his family and crewmates were still alive, he’d keep working hard to find them. No need to telegraph his plans.
No need to single them out, either, or the Terror would guess who he was. He still felt it necessary to keep that to himself. Maybe that was idiotic, but it was how he felt—and if the Terror learned who he was, that same family and crewmates would suffer for his actions.
Falcone clapped him on the shoulder. “I’ve got to head back down and start working with Captain Fields on how to get the former slaves off this place. They’ll all need to be debriefed. They might be able to point us at other facilities, though several slavers have confirmed part of what Breen told you. This was their one big base.
“You do good work, Captain Madrid. Look for a really nice bonus in the near future. It was a pleasure working with you and I hope we can do it again real soon.”
The agent squeezed his shoulder and walked out of the infirmary.
Kernsky watched the other woman walk out before turning back to him. “With how this turned out, I’m not sure I’d be happy with that expectation.”
He laughed and then groaned again.
The factor took a step back. “I’ll let you get some sleep, but rest assured you and your company have earned some serious credit with the Guild. Hell, with a lot of guilds. You brought down the slavers. That’s an achievement you can be proud of. Well done
, Captain. Well done.”
She walked out the door and left him lying there with his own thoughts.
He might have stopped the slavers, but the Cadre was still out there. The Terror was still out there. He’d make the bastard pay one day very soon. He’d killed Breen and he’d do the same to the Cadre leader. Shari demanded it.
But he couldn’t do it with this darkness inside him. He had to be in control, not a slave to the Dark. He had a problem that was too big for him to solve on his own, and it was time to admit it.
He pressed the call button beside his bed, and Dr. Merrine quickly appeared.
“Are you in pain?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said hoarsely. “But not the physical kind. I need to talk to someone about the rage inside me. The anger I can only barely control. I’m tired of it dominating me.”
She pulled up a seat and sat. “Then you’ve come to the right place. This is a Fleet cruiser, Captain Madrid. I’m almost as good a counselor as I am a surgeon and I’m told I’m a terrific listener.”
Other books by Terry Mixon
You can always find the most up to date listing of Terry’s titles on his Amazon Author Page.
The Empire of Bones Saga
Empire of Bones
Veil of Shadows
Command Decisions
Ghosts of Empire
Paying the Price
Reconnaissance in Force
Behind Enemy Lines
Battle for Terra (Coming September 2017)
The Clan Wars (Coming December 2017)
The Empire of Bones Saga Volume 1
The Humanity Unlimited Saga
Liberty Station
Freedom Express
Tree of Liberty
The Fractured Republic Saga
Storm Divers
The Scorched Earth Saga
Scorched Earth
The Vigilante Duology with Glynn Stewart
Heart of Vengeance (August 2017)
Oath of Vengeance (Coming Late 2017)
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Other books by Glynn Stewart
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ONSET
ONSET: To Serve and Protect
ONSET: My Enemy’s Enemy
ONSET: Blood of the Innocent
Duchy of Terra
The Terran Privateer
Duchess of Terra
Terra and Imperium
(upcoming, see www.faolanspen.com for latest estimated launch date)
Castle Federation
Space Carrier Avalon
Stellar Fox
Battle Group Avalon
Q-Ship Chameleon
Rimward Stars
Operation Medusa
(upcoming, see www.faolanspen.com for latest estimated launch date)
Starship’s Mage
Starship’s Mage: Omnibus
Hand of Mars
Voice of Mars
Alien Arcana
Judgment of Mars
Stand Alone Novels
Children of Prophecy
City in the Sky