“How touching,” Charley joked as she charged up a hallway and into an empty gym.
“I’ll check the bedrooms upstairs,” Vinnie muttered, heading back through the door. “Watch the doorway. Fire first, think later.”
Charley huddled behind a walking machine and watched the doorway intently. A rush of footsteps preceded a bandit rolling into the gym, his plasma rifle pumping furiously. Fragments of gym gear went flying as Charley huddled low. The bandit’s entrance had been unexpected and she took a moment to find her target again. He was propped against a weights station and had her firmly in his sights. Charley ducked low and commando crawled around the walking machine. Plasma blasts fizzed passed her ears as she brought her rifle to bear on the firing bandit. Three blasts into the stomach send the bandit falling backwards. Another two to the head closed the deal. Charley cursed under her breath. She was used to the targeting computer cleaning up her aim.
She spun to the door, expecting more heat. The second bandit must’ve chased Vinnie upstairs. Charley saw a ripple of reflected light in the next room. Must be a spa of some kind. Just to be thorough, she went to have a look. Light shimmered from a beautiful, bottom-lit, 25-meter lap pool. Steam drifted off the surface. The water was lined with pretty floating candles. Soothing music was being piped into the relaxing, semi-open room.
Charley was about to leave when she heard a small splash. She turned to see a head duck back into the water.
Charley pointed her rifle at the cowering figure.
“Step out, now!” she yelled.
The figure hauled herself from the pool. She was naked and frightened. Judging from her lithe body, augmented chest and the fact she was in Fallon’s villa, Charley guessed she was some kind of escort.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Charley said gently. “I’m just here for Fallon’s loot.”
The girl’s eyes widened. “You can’t take that,” she stammered. “You don’t know what he’s like.”
Charley noticed the burn marks on the girl’s thigh. It was obvious she’d been abused, and fairly recently at that.
“I killed him,” Charley said with more relish that she intended. “The fucker is stuck on a flagpole.”
The girl looked at Charley, unwilling to believe it was true.
“I heard the shots,” she eventually said. “I guess I’m not dreaming after all.”
“How long have you been Fallon’s squeeze?” Charley asked suspiciously.
“Three years,” said the girl, lowering her head. “Apparently I’m due to be replaced. Or so he kept telling me.”
“The coward’s dead now,” Charley said. “You’re free to leave. Start a new life.”
The girl sank to her knees, her eyes moistening. She clearly didn’t know what to do with herself. Her tormentor was dead but she had plenty of emotional baggage to work through.
“First, get some clothes on,” Charley said, tossing her a clean towel. “Can you tell me where the safe is?”
The girl pointed to a small chamber adjoining the pool room. “Fallon was a paranoid motherfucker,” she said venomously. “But I think he installed a safe under the hot coals in the sauna.”
Charley couldn’t help but grin. Bumping into this girl might just be very helpful indeed.
“Thanks,” Charley said. “What’s your name?”
“Vanessa.”
Charley ventured into the sauna and was glad to find it wasn’t activated. She lifted the grill and tossed all the coals to the floor. Under the gas element she found a keypad.
“Bingo,” she said to herself. But how to open it?
She pressed the numbers corresponding to ‘Candy’. The keypad glowed green and a panel slid open to reveal the safe’s contents. There were credit rolls in there, perhaps amounting to 1000 bits. Loose change. The only other things were a black, embossed dildo and a small purple data cube. Charley threw the dildo away in disgust and was about to toss the cube when a hand gripped her wrist.
“Slow down, sweetheart,” Vinnie breathed in her ear. “This is what we came for.”
9
Vin’s hands were covered in blood. Charley guessed he had taken care of that other bandit.
Vinnie activated the cube and a projection expanded across the floor. The information looked super boring to Charley but Vin wolf-whistled as if Charley was stripping in front of him.
“What is it?” Charley asked.
“A mining requisition,” Vinnie said. “Gronko was right. He said Fallon was set to do a job for a huge mining corporation from the core worlds. Don’t ask me how he knew.”
Charley blinked. It was just a job requisition. What did it have to do with them?
“I don’t get it,” she said.
Vin glanced at her. “I keep forgetting you grew up in the middle of the desert,” he said. “This is an open requisition. The Silent Runners may have won the bidding war for this contract, but the job falls to whoever holds this cube. MinCorp knows this part of the galaxy is the wild west and they don’t really care who does it, just that it gets done.”
Charley nodded slowly, absorbing the information. The more she thought about it, the more she liked it. This kind of job sounded very lucrative indeed - just the type of job for the steadily building Pirate Guild.
“Where’s the job?” she asked.
“That’s the best part,” Vin said. “The asteroid in question is further along the Beluga Run. Just off Sanzar, the gas giant in this sector.”
Charley considered the prospect of completing the job.
“Will the Silent Runners come after us?”
Vin shook his head confidently. “Not on your life. Fallon was too paranoid to tell his men about this job. Otherwise why keep it in his safe?”
Charley nodded uncertainly. “We’ll need a new ship,” she said. “Surprise can’t handle a mining operation.”
Charley heard a tinkling sound and realized Vin was holding up a necklace of glittering gemstones. They were utterly beautiful - Charley had never seen anything so gorgeous.
“Rainbow stones carved from the lagoon coral not far from this island. Extremely rare. I lifted it from Fallon’s wardrobe.”
“They’re pretty, but they can’t cut through rock,” Charley pointed out.
“Sure, but they can buy us the mining rig we can fit to the hull of the Surprise.”
Charley’s eyes narrowed. “How much?”
“At least 10,000,” came a small voice. It was Vanessa, looking at the necklace sadly. “He never offered me anything like that.”
Charley looked at her. “Of course he didn’t,” she said. “Rest assured we’ll be putting it to good use.”
“I want to come with you,” Vanessa said.
“I don’t think so,” Vin said with a glance at Charley. “We’re not exactly normal people.”
“What do you mean by normal?” Vanessa asked. “You mean like all the goons that guard this house day and night? You mean like Fallon?”
“Point taken,” Vin said. “But we’re not exactly a stable operation.”
“Anything is better than this hellhole. I need a new start. Please. I can’t fight very well but I’m good with people. I can run diplomacy and organize your resources.”
Charley considered the prospect of letting Vanessa join the crew. She was tall and lovely. She had a figure to die for. Her long chestnut brown hair was immaculately maintained. How would she go in a fight to the death?
“I don’t doubt your abilities as a negotiator,” Charley said. “But life is rough with us. Vinnie here is basically a lowlife and I’m just scum from a place called Sandflower Downs.”
Vin raised his eyebrow at that but didn’t say anything.
“I can see what you are,” Vanessa said. “You both have a glow about you which I want a part of.”
Charley was sobered by this observation. She and Vinnie had just killed several men. If that filled her with a ‘glow’, what did that say about her?
“You just lo
ok like you enjoy the adventure of all this,” Vanessa said. “After the life I’ve had, I just want to go along for the ride.”
“Welcome aboard,” Charley said, convinced they were meant to meet this shy girl. “This is Vinnie Teks.”
“Vanessa Taylor,” she said, taking Vinnie’s hand. The burly pirate couldn’t help glancing at her ample chest underneath the wet towel. Charley wondered if Vanessa’s presence was going to be a problem. She seemed nice enough and doubted she would cause trouble.
“Are your clothes upstairs?” Vin asked. “Go get them. The rooms are clear but there’ll be serious heat soon.”
The trio rushed down to the ground floor. Gronko was smashing his way through the broken glass at the front wall.
“They’re all coming down on us,” he growled. “We need to get to our ships.”
“Let’s split,” Vinnie said. “Come with me.”
Vinnie lifted the hand of one of the dead goons and cut off the finger with his combat knife. Vanessa looked away in horror.
“He has something in mind,” Charley said, reassuring her that they weren’t cruel butchers.
The four of them hustled down to the basement level, where a gleaming dune buggy was parked. It had four seats but there was also a plasma turret mounted on the back.
“That’s mine,” Gronko demanded. No one was prepared to argue. Vinnie took the wheel and Charley sat with Vanessa in the back seat. The escort was alarmed by the renki’s presence and kept looking over her shoulder.
Vinnie wasted no time in pressing the bandit’s severed finger into the activation slot by the steerage bar. The engine throbbed into life. Vin tossed the finger away and pointed to the double garage doors. “I can’t be bothered finding the switch,” he said over his shoulder to Gronko.
A screaming wail of plasma fire erupted over their heads and the double doors literally melted to the floor. Vin accelerated through the opening. Thankfully the buggy’s thick tires were heat and cold resistant. Only the best for Fallon.
Charley yelled a warning as two pursuing buggies settled in behind Vin as he took them down a dusty path. The headlights pierced the darkness of the jungle, bringing the canopy to chattering life.
Plasma bolts whistled past the buggy. One or two fizzed against the rear panel. Charley and Vanessa sank into their seats. Gronko’s heavy, armored boot almost knocked Charley out as he turned the turret around and began firing behind them. All Charley could see was the renki’s terrifying, bestial face as it drew back into a snarl. It was lit by the lime green of the plasma bolts he was unleashing on the chasing bandits. Several seconds of concentrated fire resulted in a huge orange flare and a rolling sonic boom.
“Fuel tank,” Gronko muttered with satisfaction. An enemy plasma bolt thudded into his spiked pauldron and ricocheted into his cheek. Such a blow might have killed a human, but the renki pressed the tattered flesh back in and renewed his frenzied attack. Another concentrated, fearless plasma attack was enough to send the second enemy buggy off the track and into the jungle. There was no further sign of enemy activity, but Vin hardly slowed down. He careened through the jungle at breakneck speed, aiming for the pale spire rising above the island’s port facility.
“Almost there,” Vinnie yelled above the growling engine.
The track turned into a wide boardwalk filled with panicked vacationers. Gronko fired the occasional plasma blast over their heads to get them out of the way.
Charley risked a glance over her seat and immediately wished she hadn’t. An entire convoy of vehicles, both bandit and casino security, were pushing up behind them. Several of the lead buggies had plasma turrets and incendiary missiles. One such ordinance whistled past the buggy, missing by inches. It crashed into the jungle undergrowth in a starburst of flame. The buggy was almost flipped by the shock wave. Vinnie only barely kept the buggy functional as the jungle became an inferno all around them. Charley was eternally grateful for a sharp dog leg that took them onto another boardwalk. Behind them the wooden planks were engulfed by flames, making further progress difficult for the convoy. Many of the vehicles simply stopped and let their occupants chase the fleeing buggy on foot. Some of the pursuers wore heavy armor and carried heavy plasma weapons. Charley suspected her little band was no match for such well armed enemies.
“We gotta hustle,” Charley said above the general din of all the converging vehicles.
“I’m on it,” Vinnie said, turning a red knob under the dashboard. Nitro boost. Charley lurched from her seat as the buggy flipped on its roll cage and skidded across the boardwalk. They were now amongst the ships attached to the various port docks. A missile screamed into a corvette that erupted into scarlet flame, lighting up the night.
“Get the fuck out!” Vinnie yelled.
Charley and the others stepped free of the roll cage and scurried into the waiting doors of the port hub. They would need permission to launch before they could reach the Surprise.
Vinnie approached the panicked staff behind the counter.
“Deactivate the port brake on the Surprise,” he demanded. “We’re leaving immediately.”
“I cannot do that, sir,” one of the harbor masters stammered. “Not while this facility is under threat.”
Vinnie was about to club the man with his rifle when a quiet voice piped up.
“Perhaps you might consider another alternative?” said a small, bespectacled man standing behind a small counter. The sign above him read GUILDMASTERS in a subtle light projection. Charley was filled with fresh hope. She wondered what the Guildmasters had to offer.
“Just tell us what the pitch is,” Gronko sneered. The renki had clearly dealt with the Guildmasters before and knew that nothing ever came for free.
“The Guildmasters have invested in defense technology around the perimeter of this facility. It is available for hire for Guild members who need it.”
“Activate it,” Vinnie said immediately. “Charge the cost to the Pirate Guild in Galveston, Danderly.”
The small man smiled. “Granted,” he said. “Though you must realize that the Guildmasters always recover their outstanding payments. And with the ominous warning, the little man’s fingers danced over his wrist pad.
Then several things happened at once. A number of gun ports slid open above the windows of the port hub. The night was painted with blue as they opened up with cutting edge quantum fire. Charley watched with amazement as security staff and bandits were cut down as if they were made from tissue paper. She hadn’t realized how close they were. She looked across at Vinnie, who was beaming at all the carnage.
“You gotta hand it to the Guildmasters,” he said. “They sure know how to build a gun.”
10
“Are they on our side now?” Charley asked breathlessly.
Vinnie shook his head. “Only until we get away,” he said grimly. “And even then, the price will be astronomical.”
Charley didn’t want to think about that right then. She looked at the renki, who was peering at a data report spooling from the control desk.
“My ship has been destroyed,” he said gruffly. “Will you humans take me to Lavars?”
“We can,” “Vinnie said firmly. “But we’re stopping at an asteroid off Sanzar first.”
The renki considered this for a moment, his breath rumbling deeply. “I agree to your proposal,” he said. “It would take too long to kill you all and take your ship.”
Charley almost laughed but she suspected the big alien wasn’t joking at all. Shrugging, she followed the others out the other side of the port hub. Many of the docks on this side were still functional, but the Guildmaster guns had turned several buggies and their occupants into cinder. The smell of melted metal and scorched flesh was strong as Charley hurried towards the Surprise. She saw Vanessa into the hatch while Vinnie and Gronko fired potshots at Silent Runners approaching from the east. Once everyone was securely inside she closed the top hatch and slid into the co-pilot’s chair alongside Vinnie. Gronko sto
od by the wall looking surly while Vanessa stood over Charley’s shoulder, pretending that the big alien didn’t exist.
Vinnie punched in a launch sequence and Charley diverted extra power to the shields. Several shots resounded against the port hull but weren’t nearly strong enough to trouble the dual layer shield. It wouldn’t be long before a turret of some kind was established. Vin disengaged from the dock and lifted blind. As the Surprise soared into the night it received two incendiary missiles to the rear that caused problems with the outer shield and eventually shorted it out. By the time the inner shield was exposed the Surprise was well out of firing range. Charley breathed a sigh of relief and showed Vanessa and Gronko to their quarters. With both coming along, all three living quarters were now occupied.
When she returned to the cockpit, Charley checked the nav screen carefully. There was some light trade traffic but nothing to indicate the Silent Runners were scrambling to attack them.
“On to the Pankar Hub,” Vinnie said with satisfaction, plugging in some waypoints for the Surprise to follow.
“Is that where we get some mining gear?” Charley asked. The only thing she knew about the trading hub was that it dealt with heavy industrial machinery for small to to medium mining operations.
“Should only take a few hours,” Vinnie said, spinning in his chair and grabbing Charley around the waist. “Should give us plenty of time … to unwind.”
Charley grinned, allowing herself to be led to the bedroom. Vinnie shut the door behind them. They weren’t particularly worried about leaving the cockpit, as the Surprise had a reasonably sophisticated AI. It would also detect hostiles well before they came within firing range.
Charley stood at the entrance to the ensuite bathroom, glad to tear off her scorched, tattered dress. She teased Vinnie by turning her back on him.
“I need a shower first,” she said coyly. The shower block was heaven after what she’d been through in the last eight hours. She was dog tired but had enough energy to “unwind”, as Vinnie so helpfully called it. She let the hot water cascade over her, letting her body relax from the heat. She soaped up and rinsed, shutting her eyes blissfully. A set of hands gripped her shoulders from behind. A warm shaft pressed against her buttocks. Vinnie was already super aroused. Charley smiled and looped her arm around the back of his head.
The Pirate Captain (The Space Pirate Chronicles Book 2) Page 5
