Return

by Blaze Ward

  Doesn’t make you any less of an asshole, buddy.

  Still, ears neutral. Whiskers relaxed. Waiting politely for your high-and-mightiness to get over himself and ask a better series of questions. Smarter ones.

  Aileen smiled to herself, thinking about the six months she’d spent wondering what her first encounter with Humans without Lazarus around would be like.

  Now, she knew.

  Good thing you took my pistol, buddy, and have enough guys around that I can’t come across that desk and break your neck before they get to me.

  Different adventure then.

  “Ambassador?” he whispered in a tone she could only ascribe to pure horror. “No.”

  Aileen fought to keep her whiskers from betraying her.

  She watched the change come over the Human. Gone was the panic. Rage had taken its place. She and Eha were suddenly standing under a stack of boxes that were about to tip over on top of them, them just watching it lean.

  Aileen suspected that she might be collateral damage, but this bastard was going to kill Eha, just as soon as he worked up the courage.

  The strange part was balancing the greed in his soul against the hatred. Aileen had made it clear that she couldn’t help navigate them somewhere, since she really didn’t have a clue about the coordinates, only the direction and distance. Eha was the key to Innruld space, although she wasn’t about to mention that to this jerk.

  He was the type Lazarus had feared would make common cause with the Innruld. Furless bipeds against everyone else, and all that. Human technology over there in Innruld hands and the Species Underground would never break free.

  Aileen kept her mouth shut.

  Up until now, she’d been pushing, just a little bit, mostly to keep him off balance. He didn’t have murder in his eyes, but it wasn’t that far removed now. Anything she said might tip him over into doing something reckless and irretrievable.

  She waited.

  He stood now and she couldn’t help tensing, but he moved to a side window and stared out it for a long minute, like he was alone in here.

  She didn’t even breathe too loudly, on the off-chance he forgot she was here, or maybe had a heart attack and keeled over dead while she watched.

  Either would be an improvement on the situation.

  Finally, he turned back. Stared at her with hatred in his eyes so overwhelming that any veneer of civility vanished for a second.

  “Return her to the cabin,” he snarled at the men around him.

  Aileen slipped off the chair and landed on her feet as Growlyboy appeared from behind her and thumbed her towards the door.

  She moved without pause, glancing back over her shoulder only at the hatch, but old bald guy had returned to staring out the window.

  Working up the courage.

  They’d have to go down fighting, when the Humans came for Eha.

  Bastards.

  Thirty

  Lazarus

  There was a man that met them when they landed near the docks, but Lazarus never heard a name and Grace didn’t introduce him. Xiuying got fitted out for a drysuit quickly and everyone got scuba gear and helmets.

  Lazarus was EVA qualified, so he wasn’t completely lost, nor was Xiuying, but Oluchi needed help with everything. Not much, though.

  Lazarus got the impression he’d done friendly dives with pretty ladies like Fernanda at some point. Just never with blasters, or at night.

  To kill people.

  Just like the Rio Alliance Navy days.

  Grace checked his equipment after doing Oluchi, while the stranger got Xiuying fixed up. She was startled as she ran hands over everything.

  Like surprised a Rio Alliance Navy officer wasn’t incompetent.

  He smiled down at her and she nodded wryly back.

  “They moved?” Grace asked the stranger that had joined them.

  “Nope,” he answered with a rough drawl. “Parked about three miles out with the engines off and all the lights on.”

  Grace turned back to him and Lazarus saw something in her eyes he couldn’t identify.

  “We’ll approach from the seaside,” she said. “Running dark where we don’t get backlit by anything, and then drop into the ocean a mile out with a sled and approach underwater. Any of you ever done something like this before?”

  “Never,” Oluchi said, bravely willing to just leap out of a van into the ocean in the middle of the night.

  “Not officially,” Xiuying spoke up in an ambiguous tone that still caught her head around.

  Grace turned to him and Lazarus smiled.

  “It wasn’t water,” Lazarus offered.

  She squinted up at him and then nodded.

  “Everyone into the van and let’s do this thing,” she said simply.

  Lazarus followed her, trying not to be distracted by watching the woman move.

  Inside the van was a sled that reminded him of an EVA scooter. Same basic principle, except that this one used water jets instead of compressed propellant.

  Grace’s friend climbed up front and they lifted off smoothly, heading south into the night.

  After a time where everyone sat in silence with their own thoughts, Grace leaned forward to talk to the driver.

  “Take us out here and shut down all the lights, including interior,” she ordered.

  Lazarus checked both his weapons and then stuffed them into a sealed bag and slung it across his back. The others did the same.

  “When we hit water, I will attach all of you to the sled by cords around your hand and wrist,” Grace continued. “I’ll drive the sled and your job is to not fall off and make us come back for you. Since none of you have been aboard Cardinal before, I’ll take the lead when we get there. I note that nobody but me has a stunner?”

  “I’m planning to play rough,” Lazarus explained simply. “Nobody has taught this man better manners before now. Time for him to learn.”

  “Whatever,” Xiuying chimed in. “Killing Khan if I get a chance.”

  “Oluchi?” Grace asked, her own dark skin betraying no emotions.

  “Eduardo pointedly put me here,” the gambler replied. “Guess that means I might be killing folks tonight. Pretty sure they’ve got it coming. Some of them, anyway.”

  “I see,” Grace looked at all of them in turn before she returned to Lazarus. “We’ll play it your way.”

  He could see unasked questions in her eyes. Like why they were going straight to violence, rather than negotiating, but he could also tell that Eduardo had told her to listen to the stranger and follow his orders.

  Lazarus was just trying to prevent an even-greater incident from occurring. Addison would already have to be talked out of an orbital bombardment event later, even if Ardna let Eha and Aileen go right now with an abject apology.

  Lazarus was just sad that he’d never run into someone that made him feel the same way as Eha obviously did about Addison. And vice versa.

  Thing went dark as they turned and headed to sea. Quickly enough, the van came to a hover.

  “Close enough,” the driver said. “Wind starting to come up from seaward and forecast suggests a pretty nasty storm just before dawn.”

  “You get some coffee after this,” Grace said. “I’ll signal where we need a pickup, but you might need to come fast.”

  “Whelan’s Cove?” he replied.

  “Good enough,” Grace said.

  She opened the side door and shoved the sled out.

  Lazarus watched it fall about ten feet and hit the waves with a huge splash. Grace was out a moment later, knifing into the water like her name.

  Lazarus turned to Oluchi and nodded him out, probably the least trained for water emergencies of all of them, if he had to guess. Xiuying laughed and went next, cannonballing into the water like Lazarus just knew he would.

  Then it was his turn. He checked his helmet and air. Confirmed the system temperature, seals, and his weapons. Lazarus slipped out and hung in the air before dropping so softly his he
lmet stayed dry.

  Then he descended into the darkness like a swimming predator.

  Thirty-One

  Oluchi

  This was nothing like diving a reef with Fernanda, or any of the other pretty girls he’d known. However, Oluchi was willing to admit, in the privacy of his own head, that people weren’t necessarily wrong to imply he was a gigolo and a dilettante. Handsome, charming, and smart had gotten him so many more interesting places than hard work and clean living ever suggested.

  Tonight, though, he might end up an actual killer, and not just a lady-killer.

  The water was dark and calm when Grace got them all below the surface. It was a whole other world from fun dives in shallow waters with pretty women.

  They descended a few yards into the hollow, dark silence, broken only by his breathing inside the helmet and the pounding of his heart wanting to break bodily out of his chest.

  Nobody had fins, so Grace pulled loops from inside the sled and wrapped the cord loosely around his wrist, then physically put both his hands on a rail designed to haul people like him. Xiuying and Lazarus got themselves taken care of, and Grace powered the sled up, flying them through the night looking at a screen he could just make out.

  It only showed one target, slowly approaching as they knifed through the water, which was good. Yisan had a few predatory aquatic species, both mammalian and piscine in nature, that got freaking huge. Large enough to swallow the whole party in a single gulp, although Oluchi suspected that the other three would just kill the creature from the inside and cut their bloody way out before continuing on their way without so much as a by your leave.

  He wasn’t sure if he should be frightened by the prospect of being in the company of such merciless people, or excited. Yesterday seemed like years ago and tomorrow felt like an eternity away. But he was here, now, and certainly Oluchi Pryce had reached an age where he was going to have to make changes soon.

  The ladies would begin to notice the younger ones one of these days. Rugged and handsome would start looking less appealing as he crossed forty and began to show his years. His options would start getting narrower and less interesting.

  He’d eventually get desperate enough…

  No, better to open a new door here. Eduardo had specifically hung up on Lazarus to call Oluchi Pryce and give him the coordinates, so that the man had someone he knew in a position to influence outcomes.

  Hopefully, Oluchi would be able to parley that into a permanent gig, presumably with Lazarus and the others, being a personal representative to the Human tycoons of Yisan.

  Fixer.

  Kind of the opposite of what he’d been doing all his life, being the thing bored and lonely housewives with money found, but maybe he just needed to stop being a gigolo and move up a little. After all, a fixer was just a pimp with a wider clientele. Not that much would change.

  He kept his snort of derision personal, lest Grace or one of the others think he was suffering some sort of troubles. Physical troubles, anyway, as opposed to moral ones.

  Quickly enough, lights began to appear in the distance. Grace turned the sled upwards and they broached the surface to find a storm starting to patter them with rain drops.

  Grace popped her facemask open, so he did as well. The other two joined them.

  “If we get much closer underneath, their sonar will probably notice us,” she said simply. “Not sure how keyed up or paranoid they might be, but approaching on the surface now is a better bet.”

  “Leave the sled?” Lazarus asked.

  “We can always come back for it, or program it to return to shore,” she shrugged.

  “Good enough,” Lazarus growled. “Let’s board and have a conversation with those folks about salon manners.”

  Oluchi felt a shiver run down his spine at the tone. Lazarus had been calm and a touch distant earlier, as one would expect with a recently-met stranger showing only-barely-ulterior motives.

  The ride in the underwater darkness had apparently turned him into a sea monster from a horror vid.

  He watched the others close up their facemasks again and dive, so Oluchi joined them after taking a moment to study Cardinal, all of about thirty yards away now and lit up like daylight. At least there was nobody standing on the fantail at the moment.

  What sensors might record a pod of sharks approaching, or a tribe of sea monsters boarding, remained yet to be seen.

  Somehow, Oluchi didn’t think Lazarus or the others cared that much.

  Thirty-Two

  Lazarus

  It hadn’t been water, but Lazarus had done something like this before. After all, he hadn’t always been a respected Capitão De Mar E Guerra. Once upon a time, a much younger Pancho Oliveira had worked for the Special Branches Section in the Field Division, rather than over in Research & Development.

  Doing the sorts of things that he wouldn’t be cleared to discuss with people until thirty years after he was dead. That was always the inside joke with the teams. Been there, done that had a whole other connotation that could cover a multitude of sins and memories without ever admitting anything.

  Underwater, Grace moved like an eel. Lazarus felt awkward by comparison, until he looked at the other two. She was just simply in another category beyond him.

  That would make the rest of this even easier.

  Cardinal was immense. Over a hundred yards long, and built more bulky than sleek. A floating casino, perhaps, rather than a saber cutting through the water. He could hear the purring hum of station-keeping water jets holding the ship against tide and swell, but they would have to cut the engines in soon, if the storm kept rising.

  That or drop an anchor. He would have preferred a rope to climb right now. Better than coming up the stern ladder. Less likely to be noticed by a Human or a systems alarm.

  Hopefully, they were already moving so fast tonight that the kidnappers weren’t expecting trouble.

  What were the chances that a stranger to this planet could recruit this level of firepower and technology on the fly? Presumably low, if you were expecting the man to be a shipwrecked sailor without the folks rescuing him.

  Lazarus stole a look at Oluchi, swimming nearby. A change had come over the man, just in the half day Lazarus had known him. The gambler had been all bon vivant at dinner and the party. Seriousness had crept up on him. Hopefully, it would hold and he wouldn’t fold in the clutch.

  Grace signaled for them to remain below, illuminated now by the surface lights. He watched her surface just enough of her face to retract the mask and watch, before closing back up and dropping down.

  She signaled the other two to remain below and for him to surface, so Lazarus went up and looked.

  They were just off the starboard rear of the ship. Not far from the fantail and the ladder, currently folded up but easily reachable.

  Climbable.

  Nobody was visible on the deck above, or the porch deck above that. Rain was falling harder now, the mist thickening to something rough enough that most people would want to remain indoors.

  Hopefully, that would work to his advantage.

  Grace surfaced and retracted her mask, so he did.

  “When we touch the ladder, a clock starts,” she said in a low, hard voice, almost close enough in the surf that they could be dancing.

  Or other things.

  “Am I leading or you?” Lazarus asked simply.

  “I’ll lead,” she said. “I have a stunner as well as the heavier stuff, so I can fire on movement rather than waiting to identify a target. Are you really prepared to kill people?”

  “Are you?” he rasped back. “Those are my friends. Someone kidnapped them at gunpoint. After we get them back, the question will be whether or not I blow the boat up while leaving, with everyone aboard. By living on this planet, you people have chosen to be pirates. Outlaws, literally outside the law itself. You don’t get to complain if someone else comes along and uses that against you. If you want Rio Alliance law, you become Rio Alliance ci
tizens first.”

  She studied his face for a long second before she spoke.

  “Not many people get that, Lazarus,” she observed. “Everyone around here acts civilized, but it’s mostly a front for some ugly rough and tumble. Like, why Eduardo keeps me on staff.”

  “Eduardo keeps you around because he’s a smart man and you might be the most dangerous Human I’ve ever met, Grace,” Lazarus turned to look at her from almost close enough to kiss.

  She blinked in surprise, whites of her eyes standing out against the darkness of her skin.

  Didn’t deny it, though. Shrugged.

  “Yeah,” she finally agreed. “I’ll get the others. You get ready to climb with me.”

  Lazarus nodded, touching his bag once like a lucky charm. If he didn’t do this now, Addison might do something infinitely worse.

  And Director Wolcott had the means at his fingertips, if he wanted. And the crew that would follow.

  Three heads surfaced around him. The worsening rain was cutting visibility down to maybe twenty yards. Waves were starting to swell harder. Cardinal would probably fire up her engines shortly.

  It was now or never.

  Thirty-Three

  Oluchi

  Oluchi wasn’t sure he was ready to be a sea monster, but that seemed to be the only option left at this point.

  Well, he could always duck back underwater, swim to shore, and go back to a declining lifestyle of debauchery, probably already sliding off the peaks of wealth and power he’d once had access to. The story would get out, marking him as a coward only good for combat in the bedroom.

  Oluchi Pryce didn’t want to think about becoming that person, so he waited at the bottom of the ladder as the other three climbed onto the rear deck and spread out.

  He joined, taking a moment to open his sealed bag and pull out a heavier pistol than a dandy like him usually carried. Lighter weapons didn’t kill unless you got lucky, and that was useful on a planet where duels were still legal.