Wild Nines (Mercenaries Book 1)

by A. R. Knight

  “Erick?” Phyla commed.

  “Yes?” Erick replied from his bed, where he’d chosen to spend the day continuing to recover.

  “How long did you tell Merc he could be out?”

  “Let me check.”

  Phyla stared out of the cockpit at the busy bay Miner Prime assigned them. Bots and people moved around between the other ships in the same space, and a few of them continued going up the Whiskey Jumper’s loading ramp, bringing in food and any parts Trina requested. Davin’s procedure was to stock up to the max at every port, even if they didn’t know where their next flight was going. Also why the captain insisted on foods that wouldn’t spoil quickly. It made for dull meals, but meant the ship could coast for months at full crew capacity. Phyla wondered how crazy she’d go if that ever happened.

  “He’s past due,” Erick said, Phyla jumped at the sudden sound.

  “Past due?”

  “Yes, I cleared him for a short trip to get some fresher air. Exertion is still a risk at this stage in his recovery.”

  “I can’t raise them on the comm,” Phyla said.

  “That’s concerning. Expect he would be needing another dose to keep the pain down.”

  “Yeah. Not like Opal to botch a schedule, either,” Phyla tried pinging their comms again, nothing. There was always a chance the two of them were in a dead spot on the station, surrounded by thick plates that blocked messages. Some places put in the investment to keep their stores, massage parlors, clubs immune to the constant connection comms created.

  “Mox isn’t answering either, nor Cadge.”

  “Worrisome, don’t you think?”

  “I’ll keep looking. I’m sure they’re just in the lifts or something,” Phyla said. The murder charge playing constantly on the news. People died all the time in space, but not company ones. Especially officials visiting an outpost being plugged as the next paradise.

  Erick told her to let him know, then signed off. Phyla flipped the board to the video feed of Erick’s room for a split second, confirming the napping doctor curled beneath a blanket. The light turned off a second later. Creepy, looking in on Erick, but the crew understood why the cameras were there. A small ship had to be able to see what was going on anywhere in case of an atmosphere leak, fire, or something worse.

  “Hellooooo ship? Anyone listening?” Came an unfamiliar voice over the comm.

  “Phyla here, on the Whiskey Jumper. Who’s this?”

  “Puk, Viola’s bot, and I’ve got news for you.”

  “Where are you? Are you with Mox?”

  “Not anymore. Viola’s been grabbed by your pal Cadge. We just ducked out the service exit of some sweet rave called Cosmic Dust. I’m bein’ sneaky and your guy hasn’t noticed me yet. Not sure how much longer that’s going to last.”

  “Where’s Mox? And what level is that?”

  “Whaddya think? Level Five. Mox was jumped by some goons, who he toasted. I mean, it wasn’t even a fight. Like, not even time to bet. That dudes a killer.”

  “Puk, focus. Where is Cadge taking her?”

  “Think I can read minds? What I do know is that he wants that bounty money.”

  “Go find Mox. Tell him where Cadge is taking Viola,.

  “So you’re not gonna help?”

  “Keep me informed and I might.”

  The bot chirped an affirmative. Then Trina blipped up quick to say the supplies were on. The Jumper fueled and ready for launch. One thing right in a day of wrongs. Phyla took a deep breath, then tried to comm Davin again. Nothing. Why was everything falling apart when she was in the captain’s chair?

  42

  Tunnels

  Lina kept the store where it was in Vagrant’s Hollow for a reason. That was, as they’d figured out when they were kids, because one of the recycled air shafts ran beneath it. A big tube through which warm or cool air went, depending on the day and which side of Miner Prime was facing the sun. It wrapped around Vagrant’s Hollow and connected with the swarming collection of vents that kept oxygen flowing through the station.

  Standing behind Lina’s desk on the main store, Davin, hair still wet from the quick shower, watched as Lina pulled back a thick gray mat. Underneath was a metal plate with a grip.

  “Be a gentleman, would you?” Lina asked.

  Davin took the cue and pulled on the plate, then pressed with his legs to move the heavy thing. The grinding of the plate against the floor showed a hole that Davin remembered looking much bigger when he was younger.

  “That’s gonna be, uh, tight,” Davin said.

  “I’ll go first. Toss your stuff to me. Then you’ll fit,” Lina said.

  “You sure about that?”

  “Pretty familiar with your size, Davin. You’ll make it,” Lina said, tossing Davin a curled smile.

  Lina descended ladder and landed two meters lower with a thunk.

  “You’ll be happy,” Lina called. “They’re circulating cold air today.”

  “Hallelujah,” Davin said, unsnapping his holster and tossing it to Lina.

  If the vents were pushing heat, it’d be way uncomfortable in the vent. Literally in a furnace. Every once in a while, exploring as kids, they’d been caught inside there when the waves of solar heat blasted through and emerged slimy balls of sweat, gasping for breath. Davin managed a squirming climb into the tube, standing up when he hit the floor and whacking his head on the ceiling.

  “Oh yeah, you’ll want to duck,” Lina said. “Guess you grew a little from when you were a kid.”

  “Is that how it works?”

  The tube itself was a stainless steel stretch of metal. Bolts dug in every meter to tie sections together. Lina’s statement about the breeze was right - a steady wind blew in the tunnel, enough to move Davin’s hair if not to push him any faster.

  “If I recall, we didn’t go very far down these vents when we were younger?” Davin said, looking back and forth.

  “We can’t just walk right into Bosser’s office. It’s in the peacekeeper barracks, a few levels away,” Lina said. “They’ll be watching the lifts. They won’t be watching the tunnels.”

  “Why would Bosser be watching the lifts?” Davin said. “We didn’t land under our own name.”

  Lina walked through the vent, the smooth walls broken up here and there by pipes and smaller vents either sending in or siphoning off the airflow. Beyond their tapping steps, the steady churn of machinery working rumbled around them. Even though they were only a few meters beneath the chatter of Vagrant’s Hollow, not a sound filtered to them.

  “There was a lot of chatter a few hours ago,” Lina continued. “Watch orders went out through common channels. Your name included.”

  “Then the rest of them could be in trouble?”

  “The only way to help your crew is to do what we’re doing here,” Lina replied. “Get rid of the charge, there’s no reason to arrest anyone.”

  Yeah, except Bosser probably wasn’t worried about arrests. Davin should run back up that ladder, to the lifts and to his ship. Or to find Opal, who’d gone shopping. Or… maybe Lina was right. Nothing Davin did alone was going to shift a fight with the peacekeepers. Nothing, except getting Bosser to stop.

  “How long will it take to get to him?”

  “Depends on whether we’re lucky,” Lina said.

  “You’re with me, so that's not likely.”

  The vent tunnel curved ahead of them, arcing back towards the station’s center. Where the main shafts were located, heading up and down. They kept walking, the low maintenance lights of the tunnel keeping the two lit in silhouette. Eventually, the light at the end of tunnel, denoted by a ring of red lights.

  “You want to improve the odds, stay quiet,” Lina said, looking back at Davin and bringing a finger to her lips. Davin nodded. The odds would need all the help they could get.

  43

  Kidnapped

  Viola wasn’t trying to struggle anymore. Not because there weren’t openings in Cadge’s shambling sprin
t through the service hallways, but because Viola kept hearing Cadge’s muttered threat in her mind.

  “Try to run, I’ll kill you. Don’t want to do that. Be nice with me, you get back home to Mom and Dad.”

  It was hard to comprehend, Cadge’s double-barreled sidearm right there under her nose. With a twitch of his finger, Cadge would erase everything Viola was. A paralyzing, crippling fear that Viola hadn’t felt. Twenty years gone in a moment. There wasn’t a rational response to that. None save doing whatever she could to stay alive. Puk, normally the counter-weight to Viola’s descents into her own head, was nowhere. She was standing on a precipice and if Viola didn’t say something soon, she would fly off into panic.

  “Why do you want the reward so much?” Viola asked Cadge.

  “I have my reasons. Most of’em having to do with risking my damn life for too little every day,” Cadge said.

  Cadge wasn’t looking back at her. Viola could dart to one of the back doors to escape. But how many of them would open when she pulled? And if it didn’t, would Cadge give her a warning or just blow her to pieces?

  “So you’re kidnapping me? That’s the solution?”

  “You have a better one?” Cadge replied.

  “How about not?”

  “Leaves me bled dry, Vi,” Cadge said.

  Past another pair of shops was a rusted light blue door, large enough for carts. Cadge paused in front of a series of three buttons, one red, one green, and the other with a marker of an alarm. The door wasn't locked from this side.

  “I don’t understand,” Viola said as Cadge pressed the green button. “Davin’s supplying everything, so why wouldn’t you be able to save?”

  Cadge did turn around this time, giving Viola a sick smile.

  “You think a man like me’s capable of being stable? This career, you live for the now.”

  Cadge waved Viola forward through the door. Back on the public causeway, lifts a few minutes walk. Out there in the open, Cadge took a long breath, his steps slowed to a natural walk rather than the tense steps in the alley. Viola noticed why after a few seconds. The same group that Mox fought, that trio, was moving along with them. Surrounding Viola. No chance of getting away now, and no sign of Mox.

  Still, talking with Cadge gave Viola time to adjust herself. The panic subsided. Analyze the situation. Just another logic problem. Four on one weren’t odds she would beat, but maybe, keeping her eyes open, there’d be an opportunity. The five of them stepped into a lift and jetted away to the eighth level. A short transfer to a cross-station lift, shooting across rather than up and down. That lift would spit them out into a section reserved for incoming ships, smaller ones than the Whiskey Jumper.

  “Where’s the coin, Cadge?” The leader of the trio, his coat torn and face sporting an array of colorful bruises, said, his voice strained. “We did what you asked, and paid more than you said we would.”

  “Got the chits here, in my pocket. Give’em to you when we’re clear,” Cadge replied. “Didn’t want Mox killing you and me lose good money for nothing.”

  “It’s so nice to be kidnapped by upstanding gentlemen such as yourselves,” Viola said, because every word beat back the chills coursing through her veins. “Truly, if there was anyone that would take me, slam me in a ship, and send me back home to my parents, I’d pick all of you.”

  “Smart mouth,” the leader said.

  “Pretty though,” said one of the other beaters.

  “There we go. That’s what this was missing,” Viola said.

  “Shut it,” Cadge said. “Vi, before you think about making any noise, understand I have every right to be doing what I’m doing.”

  “Well, now you’ve changed my mind,” Viola said.

  That prompted a snicker from the leader, but the opening lift doors cut short Cadge's reaction. Viola didn’t catch the bay’s number because she was staring at the incredible number of ships zipping in and out of the space. Davin put the Jumper in a larger bay meant for cargo, but this one was for small craft. All the pleasure-seekers and businessmen stopping by the station for meetings, parties, tourism. In the time between the lift doors opening and Viola setting foot on the bay’s floor, at least five ships in her view ignited their engines and floated up and out.

  The leader already had his hands out, waiting for Cadge to hand over the coin. Cadge dropped the three black and blue cards into the leader's hand, one by one.

  “Already loaded?” the leader asked.

  “Check’em if you want,” Cadge said. “I can wait a minute.”

  “Cadge Vasseter!” yelled someone on the bay floor, climbing out of their ship.

  Viola couldn’t make out who it was, their head covered by a wide hat, a long gray coat coming from the collar to the person’s ankles. Cadge, though, had an idea, because he jerked away from the trio and dove back towards the lift. Viola watched as the doors closed before Cadge could get inside, causing the small man to bounce off of them and fall to the ground, hands scrambling for his sidearm.

  “Who’s that?” the leader asked.

  “Don’t wanna know,” Cadge growled back. “There’s an extra ten for each of you if you help me kill them.”

  “Murder’s gonna cost you fifty.”

  “It’s not murder if the damn target’s a bot!” Cadge replied.

  The trio stared at Cadge like he’d sprouted flowers from his face. Viola imagined she had a similar expression. Bot? What enemies did Cadge have that had a bot capable of killing? Regardless, nobody was watching her, so Viola made small steps away from the group, towards one end of the bay. The trio were still arguing with Cadge, driving up the price and checking their weapons.

  Viola slipped behind a stack of outgoing luggage, a tower of suitcases tall enough to keep her hidden. At least, that's what she thought until a heavy hand landed on her shoulder.

  “Stay here,” a steel voice said. “You’re not the target. And I don’t get extra points for collateral damage.”

  44

  Risk It All

  “What?” Viola asked, looking behind her.

  The thing Cadge was calling a bot crouched next to her, patchwork robes bunching up around it. In each hand was a long and narrow gun, thin lines of jagged red running up one barrel, blue on the other.

  “Who are you?” Viola asked.

  “My name is Fournine,” It replied. “Excuse me while I eliminate my target.”

  That was one way to say hello. Viola sat back as Fournine walked towards Cadge and the trio. Cadge was the only one even looking in Fournine’s direction, and was the first to yell, pointing his finger at the android. If it was hunting Cadge, then it was probably the same one from Eden Prime. Which meant that after Cadge, Davin and the others were next.

  “Friends!” Fournine announced. “I am legally authorized to terminate Cadge, here. The rest of you have a choice. Leave and live, or stay and suffer the fate of an accomplice.”

  The leader exchanged quick looks with his pals, who both backed towards the lift. Cadge, voice edging higher, again promised fifty… what denomination Viola didn’t know. Thousand? Hundreds? The going price of bot murder wasn’t something she knew.

  The trio didn’t listen. As soon as the lift doors opened, they booked it. Cadge started that way too, but before he’d gone two steps, Fournine fired from his blue gun. The bolt snaked out, slower than a normal laser, but arcing in on Cadge even as the mercenary, expecting the shot, fell to the left.

  The blue bolt struck like a pouncing cat, swinging in at the Cadge. Bits of lightning sprung up around the mercenary, pulling Cadge to the floor, mouth and eyes open. It wasn’t something Viola wanted to watch, but she couldn’t pull her eyes away.

  Fournine took a cautious walk up to Cadge, both guns out and pointed at the mercenary. Viola edged out from her cover to get a better view. Cadge twitched as the android stood over him.

  “A deal, target,” Fournine said. “Information on your fellows. Where they are, where they’re going, and I’
ll ensure they pay for abandoning you here.”

  Cadge looked at the android, shaking his head, eyes and mouth tight.

  “You think I’m gonna sell them out?” Cadge said, spit flinging from his lips. “You think they abandoned me? Hell, I abandoned them. For that girl there.”

  Cadge nodded at Viola. Fournine didn’t turn its head. It probably knew exactly who Cadge was talking about.

  “I’ve done nothing worth killing for,” Cadge continued. “But I figure you lot don’t see gray, only red.”

  “Smarter than you look,” Fournine said, raising the red gun.

  As Fournine brought the gun up, Cadge triggered something with his left hand. There was a roaring pop, the noise Viola would hear whenever Ganymede’s colonization day rolled around and Galaxy Forge launched fireworks into the light atmosphere. Fournine flew off of Cadge and into the wall next to the lift. Cadge himself didn't move, his eyes closed. Unconscious, or dead.

  Around the bay others were noticing the fight, gathering to watch what was happening on the walkway. Another lift with a handful of passengers arrived, only to notice the bodies send the lift away to another, any other, destination. The station's cameras had to notice. Might be playing on the news now. If Mox and the others saw it, they'd know to run.

  Fournine was the first one to move, pushing itself up from the floor and standing straight. It stared ahead, unblinking for a few seconds. Rebooting. Just like Puk did whenever she needed to update the bot. A scrubbing of scrambled code, a re-orienting of priorities. When Fournine grabbed its guns and turned to Cadge, its set face was the same unflinching cold as before.

  “How I hate surprises,” Fournine said, this time keeping a meter between himself and Cadge’s unmoving form. “And whatever you’re planning next, please know that I can tell your heartbeat from here. One more chance, Cadge Vasseter. My mercy goes no farther.”