Step by agonizing step, they retraced the steps of their earlier fight. Blood now covered the deck in several places…including one spot Tommy knew to be his.
His shoulder was killing him, but he was going to live. In theory, at least.
Eventually they reached the cargo bay where the Marines had to file down the ladder and Tommy felt himself relax.
At least he did until he heard a familiar voice.
“Let me go,” Dianne said. “I don’t have anything you want.”
Tommy and Harley exchanged an alarmed look. Dianne should be in her cabin, not in here where the risk of fighting is too high.
“Leave her, Marshall,” an unknown voice barked. “We’re bolting.”
“I’m not done here,” answered another voice.
Ignoring the pain in his shoulder, Tommy stepped forward until he could see just what was going on and brought his rifle up into firing position.
Dianne was being held by a man, a blond man Tommy had already seen a couple of times today already. Blondie had a gun to her head as he backed toward the cargo bay. Marines trotted past him, but he paid them no mind. His eyes scanned the catwalks until they found Tommy.
“Ah, Mister Reilly,” the man said. “I believe you have something that belongs to me.”
“You’re not getting it,” Tommy answered.
The blond man smiled malevolently. “Oh, I think I will. I don’t think you want to risk your girlfriend.”
“Let her go and you can leave this boat,” Tommy replied.
Out the corner of his eye, he saw Harley moving down the catwalk, probably to split the man’s attention and stretch his peripheral vision.
Tommy placed the reticle of his scope on the blond man’s left eye.
“Now,” Blondie began, “here’s how this is going to work. You’re going to give me the data chip. You’re going to run a little program I’ve got on a chip in my pocket that will wipe any files you have on your systems, and then I’m going to leave. With the woman.”
“No, you’re really not,” Tommy answered defiantly, his shoulder pain adding an intensity to his words.
“Give me the chip or the bitch dies,” Blondie growled.
That was all Tommy needed. Before he realized what was happening, he squeezed the trigger, launching the railgun projectile down the magnetic tube and out into the ship’s atmo where the fins deployed.
Intellectually, Tommy knew precisely what was happening at any given moment of the projectile’s flight. In particular, he knew what was happening as the forty-two-caliber slug punched into the blond man’s left eye.
Despite the other man’s threats and demeanor, he dropped on the deck where he stood. All the Marines were gone, no one left to care about the unknown Armsteadean. Tommy sure didn’t.
“Harley,” Tommy said, “Please get this trash off my deck.”
Chapter 17
The medical bay of Regulus was nice. Far nicer than the glorified closet that made up Sabercat’s med bay. Then again, this was a warship with a much larger crew. They needed the space.
The corpsman had already told him that Mary was recovering will. The shot hadn’t been fatal, but she was undergoing surgery right then to repair the damage. Her digestive system was wrecked by the hydrostatic shock of the pistol round.
Tommy looked up as Commander Colton Walker stepped into the medical bay.
“Thank you,” he said before the navy man could say a thing.
“You know it was my job, right?” Walker asked
Tommy nodded. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’m not thankful you did it.”
“Been talking to Dianne,” he said.
While he and Dianne knew each other from high school, they went to college near one another. Colton and Dianne had run in similar circles, which made sense. She never cared who was Clan and who wasn’t. Unlike him in those days.
“What did she say?” he finally asked.
“She told me you changed, that you’re not the same jackass you were back in college. That true?”
Tommy nodded slowly.
“What happened?”
“You heard about me on that island?” he asked the warship commander.
Walker nodded.
“Well,” Tommy continued, “the guy you knew and loved died out there. I’m what came back.”
“So you’re not that guy anymore?”
Tommy shook his head. “Nope.”
“Then who are you now?”
That was an excellent question. During his misspent youth, he’d been a holy terror, but most of what he’d done hadn’t been particularly illegal. He obeyed the law, for the most part. Sure, some of his pranks had broken a few laws, but in his mind at the time, that was fine because he wasn’t actually stealing stuff.
Now, though?
He’d just been treated for a wound taken in his third firefight of the day, one of which involved law enforcement of a sovereign government. Prior to this, he’d helped plan and facilitate the theft of billions of bits worth of gold from a secured warehouse, gold seized by the EDC. He’d crossed all those lines the old him had refused to cross.
The thing is, he still knew he was a better man now than he had back then.
Finally, he replied, “I’m not sure. I just think he’s someone you’d like a whole lot more.”
Walker chuckled and turned. As he walked away, he said, “Docs’ll have you up and ready to head back to your ship in a few. Just sit tight.”
“Anything you need, if I can do it, you’ve got it,” he said to the other man’s back.
“Fat chance of that happening brother,” the man said as he turned and headed down the passage. There was less sting, less bitterness in the other man’s words. Colton Walker might not be ready to forgive him for his past, but Tommy got the feeling he had a chance to earn it though.
That’s all he ever wanted.
** ** **
The mansion was quiet. It usually was on any given evening as Wilson escorted his employer through the door and into the living room.
“Wilson? Do fix me a drink, will you? If I have to put up with those Independent Party morons one more time, I swear I’m going to go on a stabbing spree,” she said, her exasperated tone fading as it normally did when she first entered her domicile. It wouldn’t last, of course, but he’d enjoy it while he could.
A man’s voice spoke, causing him to jump. “Yeah, fix me one too, Wilson.”
Wilson turned and looked as the light in the adjacent billiard room came on.
“You remember how I like it, right?” the man asked.
“Of course, Mister Reilly,” Wilson answered, annoyed.
“Tommy,” his employer said. “Please tell me you’re here to end this nonsense.”
“No, Mother, I’m afraid not.”
Maureen Reilly turned her back on her son and sighed. “A pity.”
Tommy stood up and walked into the room. There was definitely something different about him, something other than his left arm being in a sling. It was a confidence that hadn’t been there before, not even after his return from Ararat.
“You know, Mother, the real pity is in how you offered up a bounty on me and my ship,” the younger Reilly said. “Hardly part of the normal maternal package, now is it?”
Madam rolled her eyes at the young man. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Tommy pulled out his pad and touched the screen just as Wilson sat the drinks in front of the two.
A hologram popped up. Maureen Reilly and Wilson conversing in this very room.
“I won’t stand for this, Wilson. I won’t,” she barked. “I want him back here.”
“Of course, Madam. I certainly understand a mother wanting her son safe and sound-”
“Oh, drop that nonsense,” she said, sitting down on the sofa. “It’s an embarrassment. My son? Running a dinky little cargo transport? It’s absurd.”
“Yes, Madam,” Wilson replied like the good little sycophan
t he was.
“Seriously, what is wrong with that boy. He’s getting as bad as the Caldwell’s with that foolishness.”
“I understand he was quite taken with the Caldwell girl during school,” Wilson said. “Perhaps she’s playing a hand in this?”
She rolled her eyes at her employee. “What do I care. I want him to get this out of his system. Honestly, if he wanted to use that degree, I could have put him in charge of one of our companies, but no. He blew what was left of his inheritance on that monstrosity. Then to name it after that creature…”
“It was quite the scandal,” Wilson offered. “Such a majestic creature.”
“Quite,” she said, then fell silent. “Put a price on him. Put it through the black-market contacts you have. I want him kept safe enough, but that hulk he’s sailing on needs to disappear.”
“And his crew?” Wilson asked, a sociopathic tone that made it clear he didn’t actually care one way or the other. He just wanted his employers will carried out.
“The less seen of them afterward, the better.”
The hologram faded and vanished. On the other sofa opposite Wilson’s employer, Tommy Reilly smiled.
“A price on my head for any pirate to take, and all he had to do is make my boat vanish and kill my crew? Well…who was going to turn that down?” he quipped to his mother.
His employer looked more annoyed by the development than anything. “And just what do you have in mind to do with that?”
Tommy leaned back and crossed his legs. His relaxed attitude didn’t quite work with the wounded shoulder, but the point got across well enough.
“To start with,” he said, “you’re going to lift that bounty. You’re lapdog here isn’t the only one with underworld contacts. I’ll find out if you don’t do it. Failure to comply will result in this showing up on the news networks owned by one of your rivals.”
Maureen Reilly studied her son with a mocking expression. “And how will that help you if you’re dead?”
The young man, a man who had always been so terrified of his mother, stared back at her defiantly. “It won’t. But it will make the news within twenty-four hours of my death, and then not even your status as a Matriarch will save you. Worse than that, however, will be the disgrace Selene and Marco will find themselves covered in. Selene’s future in politics will vanish. So will Marco’s. More to the point, you know it, too.”
The Reilly Clan matriarch was normally as unflappable as they came, except in private. Right now, however, she was absolutely shaking in rage. The thing was, even Wilson knew Tommy was right. The Clans did not take filicide casually. You could kill almost anyone else and they’d shrug it off. Kill your child and your entire Clan became fair game.
Just ask what remained of the Clinton Clan from their fiasco just a decade earlier.
“Alright,” the matriarch finally forced herself to say. “What else?”
Tommy laughed. “What do you mean, ‘What else?’ I didn’t want anything from you. I wanted to earn my own way. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Wilson noted that Madam began to relax, only to tense up yet again as her son said, “Oh, since you ask, there is one thing I could ask.”
“And that is?” she growled. She clearly didn’t enjoy being on the receiving end of such treatment, which was understandable. The powerful held onto power so dearly in order to prevent situations like this.
“Sowards is about to come…well, let’s just say he’s going to come under a great deal of scrutiny. I know your dealings with him won’t be found, obviously, so this isn’t a warning. No, I’m just going to tell you to let whatever happens to happen. No trying to bail him out. Understood?”
The elder Reilly nodded once, never taking her eyes off her youngest child.
“And the rest of the information on that data chip?”
Tommy shrugged. “Well, that’ll pop up here and there as needed, I suspect. And you’re going to let it.”
She took a sip of her drink. “You know he was going to blackmail us into invading Armstead, right? You’re well aware of how I feel about that sort of thing.”
Tommy leaned forward and mimicked her action, taking a long swallow of his Jameson. “I honestly don’t give a damn. But I will give you a gift.”
The harrumph from his employer surprised even Wilson in his annoyance.
“The data chip has been scrubbed of any and all Reilly Clan wrongdoing, and God knows that was a lot,” he volunteered.
“Why would you do that? It’s clear you don’t hold any affection for me,” she said.
“I hold just as much affection for you as you do for me,” he said, leaning back again. “But I do happen to like my brother and sister, often despite Marco’s best efforts. That said, I don’t want to see them taken down because of your activities.”
She studied her son again. Wilson knew what was going through her mind at that moment. She was seeing more of herself in her youngest than she’d ever imagined. He knew when he had someone by the short hairs, but also knew that leaving something on the table often gave the other party a reason to be beholden to you later.
“Done,” she finally said.
Tommy nodded graciously and stood. “I’ll show myself out,” he said as he walked toward the door.
“Thomas,” Madam said.
Tommy turned to look at his mother.
“If you walk out that door this time, there will be no coming back. You will be disowned in every single way. You will get nothing from me when this venture of yours fails. You won’t get anything from any of the other Clans, either. Do you understand that? You’ll get nothing from me.”
Tommy simply smiled and replied. “Finally. Everything I ever wanted.”
With a that, he turned and walked out the door.
** ** **
The galley area of Sabercat was a happy, jolly place. They’d dusted off from Earth without anyone chasing them—a surprisingly rare occurrence lately, they’d joked—and broke atmo on their way to Jericho. Dianne had some work to do there, so that would complete her trip.
Mary sat in one of the chairs, her stomach still obviously hurting her, but she begged everyone to continue joking. She said she’d rather laugh and hurt than not laugh at all. These were free laughs, after all.
That initiated a running gag for the night. Everything was “free.” Free atmo, free water, free rolls, everything.
For Mary, it really was, though.
Tommy simply leaned back and enjoyed it. His shoulder still hurt, but he’d stood up to his mother and gotten her to back off. His friend, Igor, had arranged for some of his Russian business associates to pick up a copy of his data to hold as surety he’d be left alone, and now he was really free.
Looking around, however, he couldn’t be upset at what she’d done.
The truth was, his first two crews bolted after seeing the potential risk. Tommy was marked, and everyone knew it. They sailed for a while, but then wanted far too much money for his budding transportation empire to afford.
Now, he had this crew. All of them were exceptional at their jobs. Most had records, of course, but he really didn’t care about that. Hell, they could have all been guilty of major crimes, and he wouldn’t have cared. Those days were over for them, apparently.
“So,” Mary said during a lull in the merriment. “What happens to me?”
Tommy considered. “Well, you’re welcome to sail with us to Jericho, though it’s not precisely civilization as most folks think of it, so I reckon you can stick around than that. We can put out the word to find you some work. Not sure EDC Port Control will take your experience with Armstead, considering.”
She chuckled, then winced. “That’s fine. I kind of hated that job.”
“Fair enough,” Tommy responded. “What do you want?”
“Well, I went to Armstead University for accounting. Know anyone who will take that degree?”
Harley busted out laughing. “Skipper, you better sign her on now before
she gets away.”
“What?” Mary asked, confused.
The big man had a point. He had one opening on the crew left, a role he’d been filling since he had some training in it, but he hated it.
“Well, we could use a purser. You’d handle all the ship’s money, pay, all that stuff. You’d have to get up to speed on NAC accounting practices, but I suspect they wouldn’t be too different than Armstead’s,” Tommy confided. “If you want the job, that is.”
Mary’s eyes darted to Adele. The normally stoic pilot merely smiled and nodded.
Tommy might be wrong, but that looked like a one-way street and that could be disaster, but it also wasn’t really any of his business. Not at this point, anyway.
The Armsteadean woman smiled back at him and said, “I’ll take it!”
“Alright! Another reason to celebrate,” he replied.
Dianne stood up and walked around the table. “Let them celebrate here. I’m going to take you back to my cabin and we can celebrate in there,” she said with a look that made it clear that her intentions weren’t precisely pure…and that would be half the fun of it.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, standing.
“Hey, boss?” Cody asked.
By now, Dianne had him wrapped up in her arms as she turned and began heading out the galley. “Yeah?” he asked as he walked past the engineer.
“Think things will quiet down for a while now?”
Tommy looked back at the crewman and, seeing Cody still looking at him, nodded. “Yeah, I think our days of high adventure and stuff are over. After all, what more can one crew go through?”
THE END
Other Books By T.L. Knighton
Soldiers of New Eden Series
After The Blast
Bloody Eden
Bad Moon On The Rise
The Tommy Reilly Chronicles
Hostile Territory (The Tommy Reilly Chronicals Book 2) Page 13
