The smell of charred flesh was thick as Charley rolled out the other side and inspected the carnage. Body parts everywhere. The bang had panicked the paja even more. They were crowding down a dirt path through some jacan trees into the rear of the depot. Camoflaged buildings could be seen through the foliage. There was also the entrance to what looked like an underground bunker. Charley supposed that whatever they needed to fix the Surprise, it would be located there. Not a minute could be wasted. The bandits might have already holed up in that bunker and it would be devilishly hard to get them out. Charley tapped on the passenger door to the armored vehicle, not expecting it to open. Instead it tried to make a run for it, surging through the smashed front gate. Vinnie and Harry Teks swarmed it with plasma fire from their respective turrets and one of the bolts struck gold, slicing through the fuel line and crippling the machine. A few more bolts and the engine exploded, lifting the troop carrier into the air. It tipped onto its roof and spun slowly. A second explosion ripped it apart, scraps of armor plating raining from the sky. Charley covered her head until the debris had fallen. She looked up at her comrades and gestured that they should follow her into the trees. Within a minute they were cautiously moving along the path that the paja had taken. The thunder of the herd could be heard in the trees ahead.
A dull boom signaled the fall of one of the fence plates. Judging from the sound, the paja surged into the breach and spilled out into the woodland beyond. Silence descended as the paja herd made good their escape. The low buildings in the trees were of interest but they didn’t contain any bandits or anything that looked valuable. The largest building was a barracks but no one could find a way into the DNA-coded lockers at the foot of every bed. Charley resolved to come back to these lockers if they survived. The smaller buildings contained some useful maintenance supplies but nothing that would help fix the Surprise.
The party huddled close to the corner of the bunker. There was no sign of activity from the outside.
“If they have anything valuable it’ll be in there,” Vin said.
“But how?” growled Gronko, kicking the door in frustration.
“Allow me,” Charley said brightly. “Or should I say, allow my PalBot.”
Charley held FIGJAM before her.
“I thought you’d never fuckin’ ask,” said FIGJAM belligerently. “Sometimes you humans are so stupid.”
Vinnie scowled. “We have no time for toys, Charley.”
FIGJAM’s digital readout flared. Charley wasn’t sure if a PalBot was capable of attacking a human, but at that moment he looked like he just might. But the moment passed and he had extended an arm into the data node beside the lock.
“You’ll trip the alarm,” Vin warned.
“You’ll trip over my dick if you’re not careful, motherfucker,” said FIGJAM.
Vin drew his blaster and actually peeled off a shot. Charley pulled FIGJAM away just in time as the shot ricocheted off the door and into the yard.
“Cool your jets or you’ll get us all killed, Vin,” she said angrily. The big pirate stepped away, still glowering at FIGJAM.
“Try that again, FJ,” she said. The PalBot spoke to the bunker AI again, presumably using all its guile and charm to get them in. At length the armored double doors slid open. Harry grunted in appreciation.
“I like your friends, Charley,” he said with a broad smile as he took point, blaster raised. Inside, a straight corridor drifted into darkness. Soft red lights lined the base of the walls.
“Careful,” said Vinnie behind them. “They know we’re coming.”
Charley followed Harry, her heart hammering in her ears. Halfway down the dark corridor and strange sound greeted them. It was like a spinning wheel. As it got louder Charley realized it was something rolling down the corridor toward them. Something small.
“Grenade!” she shouted.
15
A rush of air by her ear and the grenade was pushed back down the corridor where it exploded. The flash of light blinded Charley for several seconds, but when she regained her sight she saw that no one had been hurt. Gronko wore an arrogant grin and tapped a small canister under the main barrel on his heavy gun.
“Generates a rush of air,” he said proudly. “Good for grenades and other explosives. Lost count of the times it’s saved my life.”
Charley nodded. “You have good eyesight too,” she commented.
“Well, we could stand around and list all the ways renki are superior to humans,” he said. “But we’d be here for days.”
Charley followed the others further down the corridor. FIGJAM nuzzled at her feet and she slotted him back into her utility belt.
An open doorway at the end of the corridor admitted to a larger chamber lined with beds. An inner barracks, but no sign of bandits.
“They must be holed up somewhere,” Vinnie said. “Probably the control room. Which means …”
Harry kicked open a door that read WORKSHOP.
“… their gear might be unattended.”
Charley and her crew hustled into a low, wide room that smelled of grease and circuitry. Gronko found wide doors at the far end of the workshop. Hauling on a chain, he pulled them open and sunlight flooded the chamber. Charley was surprised to see the shores of a wide, serene lake. A large shed stood by the water.
“Could be a boat in there,” Harry said. “Could be an escape route.”
“We have some serious tech here” Vinnie called out. Charley rushed to his side. There certainly seemed to be all manner of ship parts neatly stored on the shelves and on plastic pallets.
“My guess is a ship comes to receive goods every few weeks,” Vinnie said. “These parts are for temporary repairs only.”
The pirate punched at a crate in frustration. “I don’t think we’ll find everything we need to patch Surprise together.”
Charley put a hand on his shoulder. She appreciated the fact that, like her, Vinnie didn’t see stealing another ship as a possibility. He had obviously grown as attached to the Surprise as she had.
“Then we take what we can,” Charley said. “We just need a vehicle to transfer the -”
Gunfire finished her sentence. Gronko was firing from the double doors and an object fell from the sky some thirty yards across the mud that skirted the edges of the lake.
“Drone,” he called, nudging it with a boot.
“The bandits must have sent it from the control room.”
“We gotta clean them out,” Vinnie said, forgetting about the ship parts. “Gronko, can you see exactly where the drone came from?”
“Someone up on the roof,” came the growled answer.
Harry marched over carrying a long service ladder. “Looks like we’ve got some climbing to do,” he said.
Charley climbed the ladder and crouched on the roof of the bunker. Through the trees she could see the other end of the camp, now a smoking ruin. She followed Vinnie across the roof and joined him at a small hatch. Harry, Gronko and Vanessa crowded around.
“Now what?” Harry asked.
“We wait,” Vinnie said curtly. “They’re bound to send another drone if their scanners have stopped picking up the first one.”
Vinnie proved to be correct. After a minute of tense waiting the hatch slid open and the ominous sound of an attack drone filled the air. The circular black unit hovered into view and Gronko pulled it toward him with his bare hands. Vinnie dropped two pulse grenades into the open hatch. Everyone hit the deck as a huge explosion rocked the control room beneath them. Cries of anguish rose into the aftermath as Vinnie dropped through the hatch with a war cry. Brandishing her blaster, Charley followed close behind. At first a thick veil of smoke obscured everything, but at length she could make out three or four bodies writhing on the floor. Gronko dropped down behind her and made a point of shooting them all in the head. The alien seemed to take a strange delight in taking the lives of these Silent Runners. Vinnie was more interested in scouting the room and looking for further threats.
/> “All clear,” he said pointedly, frowning at the bloodthirsty renki.
“Let me out,” said FIGJAM. Charley put it on top of the central console. The PalBot plugged himself in, diodes whirring.
“Shutting down security systems,” it reported.
“Thanks, FJ,” said Charley, checking the external corridor now that the entire bunker had become accessible. There didn’t seem to any more bandits. She estimated there were seven or eight dead outside in the yard along with the five dead here in the control room.
“An entire squadron,” Vinnie said, giving her thoughts a voice. “This facility is certainly important to the Silent Runners.”
“There’s a large room to the south,” FIGJAM reported. “Could be more goons in there.”
“Come on,” said Vinnie grimly. Charley followed him down the corridor and into a wide, shadowy warehouse area. The shelves were lined with crates. Vinnie ripped one open and shied away from the smell. Charley looked in - tapo fruit. The exotic, tropical fruit was known to have strange properties if ingested. The salukar tribes on Gyron were known to use the fruit on ceremonial occasions. It seemed the Silent Runners were running quite a supply line from Bonesse.
“Interesting,” Vinnie said. “I’m pretty sure this stuff isn’t legal. Well, it wasn’t back in the old Imperial days anyway.”
“No ship parts,” Charley said, unable to hide her disappointment. She pointed to a goods lift in the center of the warehouse floor. “Where does that go?” she wondered.
Vinnie activated the lift once they were both in. It rose through a sliding aperture in the roof. Dappled sunlight greeted them as they rose to a separate section of the bunker roof.
Before them, just off the edge of the building, stood a wall of jungle. The terminus of a zip line had been erected here. The line disappeared into the shadows of the jungle. Vinnie fingered a wide bucket attached to the line. “This is how they transfer the fruit,” he said thoughtfully.
“I don’t like the sound of that jungle,” Charley said. Something wasn’t right. There wasn’t the usual chatter of monkeys and birds.
“Charley,” Harry said over the wrist com. “We’re all coming straight to your location.”
“Is everything OK, Harry?” Charley asked nervously. But he was gone. The pair waited until Harry appeared in the goods lift with Vanessa, FIGJAM and Gronko.
“What’s going on,” Charley asked as she slotted FIGJAM into her belt.
“Play the message, FIGJAM,” Harry said to the PalBot.
FIGJAM played a scratchy recording of a male voice.
“… penetrated the lakeside depot. I repeat, a strike force has penetrated the lakeside depot. Send in two firebirds just to make sure of them.”
Charley looked at Vinnie, the blood draining from her face.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” said Vinnie. As he muttered the words a heavy drone rolled over the rainforest. The noise triggered sharp anxiety in Charley’s chest. It sounded like the firebirds were already on top of them. Charley had never seen one, but she didn’t want to hang around long enough to get a good eye full.
“Everyone get on the zip line,” Vinnie said impatiently as he fiddled with a control panel on the terminus pole. The zip line chugged into life, rotating the buckets through the jungle. “Girl, you go first.”
Vanessa climbed into a wide bucket and found it was large enough to support her weight. With a panicked look back at Charley she disappeared into the jungle.
“Gronko, look after her,” Charley said, waving the big alien on next. Thankfully, the bucket he climbed into held firm. A heatwave passed over the roof as a flying craft loomed into view, huge gatlings built into its wings. The chambers began spinning furiously.
“Incoming flak, go, go, go!” yelled Vinnie.
Harry scooped Charley off her feet and put her into a bucket before climbing in himself. The pair was whisked away into the trees, bouncing around alarmingly. The buckets were spaced at around 400 yards, so it was difficult to tell if Vinnie had made the next bucket or not. All she could hear was the thunder of heavy gatling fire back at the bunker.
Charley looked at Harry with concern as their tapo bucket rolled along the zip line through dark jungle. Every now and again they got a glimpse of Gronko in the bucket ahead of them. The zip line was tethered to the occasional great yaob tree, around which platforms had been constructed. Charley was tempted to leap off onto one of these platforms but it was probably a good idea to put as much distance between them and the bunker as possible. The firebirds wouldn’t be able to follow into the jungle but who knew how many men were currently being dropped to the roof?
Just when Charley began to think they might actually have escaped, the zip line stopped moving, swinging the bucket wildly.
Charley looked to Harry for reassurance. “It’s OK, girl, we’ll think of something.”
Charley stepped close to Harry, seeing imagined threats in every corner of this jungle. If they weren’t on the run for their lives she might’ve actually enjoyed the ride. The zip line was high in the canopy and currently surrounded by a superb flowering creeper that climbed all the way to this height from the ground. Gronko was somewhere around a bend in front of them, whilst they still hadn’t seen any sign of Vinnie behind them.
“What do we do?” Charley asked with a note of alarm.
“There’s nothing we can do but wait,” said Harry, closing his arms around Charley’s neck. Charley was happy to stand close to the older man, feeling that familiar sense of protection whenever she was near him.
“Copy that, Vinnie, we’ll sit tight,” said Charley into the com.
16
It was always difficult waiting in such circumstances but Charley and Harry had little choice. There was no one else to be seen. The gunfire from before had faded away. Charley wondered if Vinnie had been able to return fire and shake some of the enemy of their backs. It wouldn’t be long before they were creeping along the zip line after them.
Harry stepped forward. Charley could smell the muskiness of his sweat. It was incredibly attractive. The old pirate favored the classic style naval trousers with open-necked shirt. His body armor was thinner and lighter than Vinnie’s but then Charley guessed that he probably depended more on agility than brute power. Now, as an older man, his clothes suited him. Harry was a throwback to another, simpler time, and Charley was drawn to that. She felt nostalgic simply being by his side. She almost wished she’d been around when Harry was in his prime, shooting enemies and looting treasures at will. She was sure he had some skeletons in the closet - all pirates did. But there was a gentle way about him, like he’d really learned how to live. It was Harry that seemed like the perfect pirate to Charley. Harry and Silverton, who she saw all too briefly.
Silence descended on the rainforest. Charley supposed the animals were still spooked by the firebirds that had passed over before. Steadily a cicada wail drifted back, creating a shimmering curtain of noise. Charley could feel a little pool of sweat at the base of her neck. It slid down her cleavage into her ripe bosom. She stood straight and tall, unafraid of Harry’s proximity. The older man was standing very close indeed, close enough to touch her.
“It’s gonna be alright,” he said, laying a casual arm around her shoulder. The action somehow drew Charley closer to him, so close that her lips were almost touching his exposed chest hair. She breathed him in, feeling entirely safe right there in the tapo bucket. The jungle was a beautiful, radiant collage of greens and browns. The day carried a warmth that soothed the bones and stirred desires. Harry’s hand crept down her spine, over her lower back. Charley prayed for it to continue lower. Harry obliged, reaching down and cupping one of her buttocks.
She sighed. Surely it was an inappropriate time to be doing this? Danger was lurking close at
hand. If she wasn’t vigilant death would come quickly. But she found herself sighing and stepping into Harry. Both of his hands cupped her buttocks now, kneading them with intense desire. Charley stepped back to an arms length from the old man. He knew exactly what she wanted him to do. Up came the hand, unzipping her from the front. Her cleavage opened out until most of each breast was visible. All but the critical points. Harry ran a hand up the middle of her breasts before teasing them out one by one. They felt engorged and supple in the radiant heat. A patina of sweat made them glisten. Harry cupped and massaged them gently.
At length he pushed the zipper down as far as it could go. His right hand crept down below her navel. Charley groaned at the attention, knowing that she was right on the edge. She closed her eyes and let the ripples of pleasure wash over her. With a firework of sensation Charley’s body pulsed and throbbed. She removed Harry’s hand and leaned back to let loose a primitive cry. It wasn’t loud or excessive, just a sound of indescribable pleasure. She felt at one with the steaming jungle for a moment, just another organism thriving amongst the dirt and the trees. She didn’t care about the violence of the day or the danger they were in. At that moment all that existed was her body and the waves of joy radiating up her spine.
Harry stepped back and just seemed to enjoy Charley’s glorious climax.
“Amazing,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “I’ve never seen one quite like that.”
“Quite like what?” Charley asked, self-conscious all of a sudden.
“Nothing,” Harry said, kissing her on the forehead. “Let’s just say you’re one of the most wonderful creatures I’ve seen.”
Charley was happy with that. She wrapped her arms around him, forgetting that her breasts were still exposed.
“I suppose you’re OK, then,” came a voice that triggered a cold chill up her spine. Vinnie had hauled himself to them from further back down the line. He was hanging from the line and was covered in sweat. What Charley really noticed, though, was the intense fury etched on his face.
The Pirate Captain (The Space Pirate Chronicles Book 2) Page 9
