“It’s ready.”
“We’re going to run this a bit different. You’re going to eat first,” Jace said.
“Of course.” Kraft served herself a plate and almost passed out when she took a bite. Real food after days of nothing almost brought tears to her eyes. When she looked up she almost laughed at the hopeful yet fearful looks.
She knew she’d probably regret it, but she couldn’t help picking on them a bit. She clutched her throat with both her hands and uttered a strangled gasp.
Everyone shot to their feet with eyes that damn near swallowed their faces.
“I told you she’d poison it!” Heller yelled.
Kraft laughed. “I’m kidding!” She straightened up. “Sheesh, you guys, it was just a joke.” She ate another bite. “It was a little too intense in here.”
“That really didn’t help the tension level,” Jace said.
“Well, it’s up to you if you want to eat what I made or not, but I’d appreciate you not looking at me as if I’m some freak in a side show while I eat.”
“Hell,” Garrett said, stepping forward and filling his plate. “I don’t care if it does kill me, I’m not real keen on starving to death.” He sat down and took a bite. His eyes rolled back in his head with ecstasy. “At least this will be a quick death, right?”
“No. Slow and painful,” Kraft said. “Not only am I a sadist, but I’m a masochist too.” She said it utterly deadpan and everyone stopped. Heller stood there about to scratch his head trying to figure out what she meant.
Kraft raised her hands. “Kidding. Did everyone’s sense of humor starve to death already?” Everyone glared at her. “I’m sorry. No more jokes. It’s fine, it won’t kill you.” She ate a few more bites. “Well, at least not right away.”
“That’s enough.” Jace filled a plate and stood up in the kitchen and ate. “Go ahead and eat. I watched her and she didn’t put anything deadly into it.”
Everyone filled their plates and began eating. Even Heller.
“Besides, why would she kill herself?” Charissa asked.
“Good point,” Bailey said.
“Right, why would I kill myself when I’ve got so much to live for?”
Everyone dropped their forks.
“One more word—”
“I know, I know, I’ll have to go back to my room without dessert.” She ate without further comment.
Everyone ate slowly but she noticed it was more from savoring the meal rather than fear of it. She waited patently until Jace finished. He took her right back to her room.
“You really didn’t gain yourself any points with that little show,” Jace said as he chained her back up.
“Probably not. But I thought it was funny. And at the moment that’s really all that counts.”
“You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”
“No. If I made it easy, the Void would have done me in by now, don’t you think? Besides, who wants to go out crying when they can go out laughing?”
“Captain, I need you on the bridge.” Bailey piped his distress call over every com of the ship but Kraft’s prison. He didn’t like that she was being treated like a slave, but Jace wasn’t making her do anything she didn’t want to. Still, piping in music to her was one thing; piping in anything else would be nothing short of mutiny.
Jace sat just down the hall in the galley. He damn near broke his own neck rocketing from the little bench at the head of the kitchen table. He ran to the bridge and scanned the console.
Everything glowed ruby red.
“Report.”
In a quavering voice Bailey said, “There is an IWOG attack ship twenty minutes aft. They’ve scanned us and know we’re here.”
“Have they hailed us?”
“No.”
“If we run they’ll wonder why.”
“Yes.”
“Does their path look to intersect ours?”
“No. From aft, they will pass us on our port side.” Bailey automatically pointed left.
“Stay on our original heading. If we don’t bother them, they probably won’t bother us.” Jace took a deep breath and crossed his fingers.
“Sounds good to me.” Garrett joined Jace and Bailey on the bridge. “Low profile is always best.”
All three men looked at the glowing red console.
“We really ought to put a more soothing color on that thing for times of crisis.” Garrett nodded to the red console. “I think a cheery lemon yellow—”
The com pan went from steady to flashing.
“They sent up a flare.” Bailey’s hand hovered over the com.
“Shit,” Jace muttered. If he didn’t open up his com it would look mighty suspicious.
Both Bailey and Garrett gulped. Jace did not swear. That he chose to do it now with a soft voice and a visible cringe shocked them both.
“Someone wants to say howdy.” Garrett fought down his fear by cracking wise.
“I think they want to do a lot more than that.” Jace nodded to Bailey. “Open the com.”
“This is I.W.G. Majestic hailing Basic2X to our fore. Identify your ship by captain, class and commission.”
Jace leaned over the console and touched the send button of the com. “This is Captain Jace Lawless of the modified Basic2X commissioned as Mutiny.”
“Thank you, Captain Lawless.”
A long pause spun out.
“They’re looking it up,” Garrett said.
“We’re clean,” Jace said.
“Not with that IWOG bitch aboard,” Heller snarled, joining them on the bridge. “She makes all of us dirty.”
Jace turned. “You didn’t.”
Heller flinched back. “Didn’t what?”
Jace grabbed Heller by the collar of his shirt and almost shook him out of his boots as he pounded him against the wall. “Did you call those bastards down on us?”
Grasping instantly, Heller’s eyes went wide. “No! No! I’d never call those shanks!”
Jace let him go. He turned back to the com and waited.
“They seem to be spending an awful lot of time looking at our dance card,” Garrett said.
Jace had a sudden image of dancing in his sheets with Kraft.
Another light on the console went from steady to flashing.
“The IWOG ship has altered course. In twenty minutes they will intersect ours.” Bailey looked to the console again. “Correction. Fifteen. They’ve also increased their speed.”
“Why don’t we just ask them what they want?” Heller asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” Garrett said. “Like a boy with his prom date, they’ll say anything to get us to lay still for them.”
“Crude but accurate,” Jace said. “Bailey, squelch the com.”
Bailey did. No response.
“They’ve increased their speed,” Bailey said. “We’ve got ten minutes at best.” Another light flashed. Bailey typed rapidly into the Tasher that Kraft had recently installed. “They have a warrant.”
“For who?” Garrett asked even though everyone knew the answer.
Bailey gulped and turned to Jace. “Kraft.”
“Who told them—”
“Trickster.” Jace cut Heller off.
“That would explain why they didn’t just blast us to smithereens. They want to make sure she’s on board,” Garrett said.
“What can we do?” Heller asked.
“Fight,” Jace said. “We can’t run, we can’t hide, we’ve got no choice but to fight.”
“An IWOG attack ship of that size has at least fifty fully trained and heavily armed fighters.” Heller checked his body for weapons and found himself woefully lacking.
“I know. Garrett, Heller, load up. Strap everything we’ve got to yourselves and make a pile of everything else in the cargo bay.”
Garrett and Heller left to follow his orders and Jace wondered if they would be the last he would ever issue.
“Cut the com, Bailey.”
Bail
ey slapped it off. “I could try a hard burn.”
“Would it buy us at least five minutes?”
“Yes.”
“Do it. But save us enough to limp away if by some miracle we survive.”
Chapter Twenty-five
A deep throbbing in the ship woke Kraft. Just by the sound and feel she knew Mutiny went for hard burn. Her heart kicked up into high gear and she leapt to her feet. Chained, she had at least the nasty weight of it for a weapon. And her tightly bound hair. She flicked her head twice, testing the limits, then tested the chain as a weapon.
Jace entered her room and tossed her boots and her belt of blades to the bed.
“We’re being chased by an IWOG attack ship.” He unlocked her cuffs.
She yanked on her boots and strapped on her gear. Her stomach rumbled loudly. Startled, they looked at one another. She looked to her belly then Jace. “I guess it’s just thanking me for a great last meal.”
Jace tossed her another gun. “If you’re as good in a fight as you are in the kitchen, it won’t be your last meal.” He tossed her three clips.
“I take it you’re not turning me in.” Kraft checked the sight of the gun. Off by less than two degrees. She nodded as she holstered it on her back butt-cheek. She liked her blade to her left so she could draw it with her right hand as primary weapon, but the gun drew second. She could yank it off her fanny faster than most men could blink.
“Not after Trickster turned us all in.”
“He what?”
“The details are sketchy, but most like that scrimshanker told them my name, my ship, that you were on board, and that we were responsible for the IWOG transport job.”
“If we survive this, Captain Lawless, Trickster is going to have to pay. That fetch cuts in way too much on my dancing and the only way to stop him is to cut off his damn legs.”
“On that, we agree. But we got bigger and better at our back door at the moment.”
“How long do we have?”
“Not long at all.”
She followed Jace from her room to the cargo deck. Garrett, Heller and Payton waited.
As soon as Kraft set foot in the room, Heller lifted the gun strapped to his chest. He flicked off the safety and pointed it right at her head.
“What’s she doing here?” Heller snarled. It was the first time he’d seen her unchained in days.
She lifted her hands, palm open, to her shoulders.
Jace stepped directly in the line of fire.
Heller yanked his gun to the sky. “Shit howdy, Jace! Don’t step in front of my gun like that!”
“Then stop pointing it at my crew.” Jace’s hands hovered over the pistols in his double holster.
Heller flipped the safety on and let his gun fall back to his chest. “She’s part of the crew again?” Heller looked baffled then betrayed.
“Ten minutes, Captain Lawless.” Bailey did his best to calmly report the moment of doom, but everyone heard naked fear in his voice. Bailey didn’t have to say what all of them were thinking.
They were going to die.
No two ways about it.
Mutiny would vanish and none of them would be so much as the tiniest fleck of rain in the most vast desert of the Void.
The IWOG attack ship had fifty fighters. Mutiny had, as Garrett once said, one crazy lady, three fighters, one pilot and two docs. It was so hopeless Jace almost burst into hysterical laughter. Nothing had ever come easy. Anything that looked easy turned out to be anything but. This situation was so hopeless from the get-go he almost wanted to toss himself out an airlock. He couldn’t run. He could fight but he’d never win.
They were going to die.
“Look, I don’t want to step on your captain toes, but I know about that ship,” Kraft said. “I know how they’re going to attack. And even though they have three times the crew we do, we can win.”
“They have ten times the crew we do,” Garrett pointed out. “Stress that toe leather all you want, girl, but we’re screwed.”
“No, we’re not.” Kraft shook her head. “Mutiny is small, so we can’t outrun them, but we can fight. Being small in a fight isn’t always a bad thing.”
“You couldn’t fight off a Trifecta,” Heller snarled.
“Because Randoms don’t run the same plan every time they attack.” Kraft flipped her hair over her shoulder. “The IWOG does.”
“By the book,” Jace said.
Kraft nodded. “The IWOG runs seek and destroy by the book. And I know the book. They need to confirm the kill. That’s why they haven’t just blown us apart. They need to board the ship which means they are going to take certain steps.” Kraft looked to them all. “The IWOG is nothing if not consistent. They have their code of conduct. That’s why they’re gonna make this a lot easier than it should be.”
“She’s got a point, Captain,” Garrett said. “If she knows them, what they’ll do—”
“She’s just laying a trap for us!” Heller was a twitch away from pulling his gun on Kraft and shooting her without further ado.
“Where my own neck is like to get yanked?” Kraft glared at Heller then looked at Jace. She dropped her hands to her hips. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve got no strong desire to die today. If they board Mutiny, you know for a fact there won’t be a one of us who’ll live to tell about it.”
“Maybe they’re only here to arrest you,” Heller said.
“That’s about as likely as them being here to exchange recipes. They aren’t here to arrest anyone. They’re here to kill everyone.” Kraft looked him full on. “Call me IWOG scum or not, Heller, they’ll kill me too. I’ve been gone too long to be an effective weapon for them anymore. They aren’t gonna waste their time brainwashing me when they got legions of folks who are more advanced than me.”
“Captain? Five minutes.” Bailey’s voice crackled with tension.
Everyone revved up a notch.
“The wolves are baying at the door, Captain Lawless. You’re gonna have to decide if you trust me or not. If it helps, I swear to you, I don’t want to die today.”
Jace looked at her for a long moment. Hatred for her past battled with a longing to trust her. In the end, his own desire to live won out. “Run it, Kraft.”
Nodding, she pointed to the main hatch. “They’re gonna latch to that airlock, so we narrow it down.”
Under her direction, the crew pushed everything in the hold against the airlock.
“Don’t block it all the way yet. Okay. Who are your two best sharp shooters?”
“Heller and Garrett,” Jace said.
“Garrett, you stand up there on that catwalk. Find a rope so that if we need you, you can slide down. Heller, you do the same from that catwalk. Both of you pick them off as they come in. Take those flood lights and train them on the hatch. Jace, you and Payton are down here. If Garrett or Heller misses one of them, you pick them off from here.”
“Where are you going to be?” Jace asked.
“I’m going to be in the airlock.”
Everyone looked at her as if she was completely mad.
Kraft shook her head. “They won’t see me. I’m a shadow, remember? I’ll kill as many as I can as I shadow my way onto their ship. Once in their ship, I’m going to muck it up and lock it down then blow it up—take care of our mutual problem.”
“I’m not even going to ask if you know how. I got a feeling you do.”
“I told you once I don’t care much for killing, but we’ve got no choice this time. We can’t leave a single one of them alive. If we fail, even if we limp away, our lives are gonna get a hell of a lot more dangerous. So we have to kill them all. Since they’re IWOG scum, I don’t imagine this is much of a problem for anyone.”
Nobody said anything.
“Glad we’re all in agreement.”
“How are you gonna get back onto Mutiny?” Jace asked.
A part of Kraft wanted to be nastier than hell at that moment. She wanted to turn to him and jeer, Don’
t you want me to die with my IWOG brethren? Isn’t that what you’re all hoping for? But she didn’t. Because she really didn’t want to die.
“If I make it back, I do. If I don’t, as soon as the airlock closes, you run. And don’t look back. You ever been to Corona?”
“No.”
“Perfect. You go there, to Borealis. After this you won’t ever be able to go anyplace where anybody knows you. You understand?”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to blow that ship apart and you don’t want to be anywhere near when I do.”
“How do we know she ain’t setting us up?” Heller asked.
“You don’t,” Kraft said. “I hate to say it, but you’re gonna have to trust me.”
“There’s an idea. A very bad one!” Heller yelled.
“Do you not grasp this, Heller?” Kraft shook her head. “Everyone’s butt is in a sling, including mine. We either stick together and fight, or we’re all going down. I’ve never crossed you or a soul on this ship, and you know it. You’ve got about sixty seconds to decide if you want to die today or not.”
Heller clambered up onto the catwalk. “I swear, if you’re lying—”
“If I am, you have my permission to kill me. But let’s survive this first.”
Everyone got into place as Bailey allowed Mutiny be locked to the IWOG ship.
Before she slipped into the airlock, she looked at Jace. “Once it starts, you run your crew without a thought to me. When that lock closes, you go. Go to Corona. Take that money in my money belt, change your names and go legitimate. Okay?”
“I’m not ever going to see you again, am I.”
Kraft laughed, then winked as she grinned. “The Void has a powerful hate for me, but it hasn’t killed me yet. And I really don’t feel like dying today.”
Kraft slipped into the airlock and Jace crouched behind the mound of goods that cluttered the passageway to the airlock. He could hear the IWOG ship dock, just as Kraft said they would.
Thief: Fringe, Book 1 Page 24
