Mandrake Company- The Complete Series

by Ruby Lionsdrake

  When a guard frowned up at Ankari, she pointed and said, “I’m with him.”

  Whether that would win her free passage or not, she was not sure, but Viktor at least appeared heroic for carrying that person out, whoever she was. And the news crew was recording it all.

  “Are you all right?” Ankari asked, reaching Viktor’s side and touching his arm. All that soot she had worked so hard to rinse off him in the shower the night before had returned. He was as grimy as the person he had saved, with his long duster coat still smoldering in places.

  “Yes.” He squeezed her shoulder.

  The paramedics pushed the hover gurney away, and a reporter ran up to Viktor. Before an interview could commence, the nearby elevator doors opened, spitting out two security officers in fresh uniforms along with two Fleet officers in their humorless black uniforms. Everyone carried weapons, and one man had a suitcase that read, Explosives Disposal Unit.

  “They’re late for the party,” Ankari muttered.

  The men did not slow down when they witnessed the plumes of smoke or the security officers busy making arrests. Instead, two of them strode straight up to Viktor. Ankari’s first thought was that someone might reward him for his heroics, if only by giving him a pat on the shoulder, but the galaxy didn’t make that much sense.

  “Viktor Mandrake?” one of the men said. “You’re under arrest.”

  “Oh?” Viktor asked, his face unreadable.

  Ankari sagged against the nearby railing. Even though they had all been illegally entering the building, surely this counted as mitigating circumstances. He had saved a life. What the security officers should be doing was figuring out who had stuffed that woman in a vault to begin with, and then they should arrest that person.

  “We saw you on the shop cameras from our security headquarters,” the officer said. “Illegally entering the pet store. Are you going to resist arrest?” Even though he had three men to back him up, not to mention all of the other security guards on the balcony, he eyed Viktor warily.

  A long second passed, but Viktor ultimately said, “No.”

  Ankari pushed away from the railing, walked over and touched Viktor’s side, looking up at him. Grim-faced, he stared straight ahead, not making eye contact with her or anyone else.

  “Good.” The officer waved his comrade forward. “Read him his station-law rights.”

  The men shouldered Ankari aside. Feeling numb, she watched as the officers cuffed Viktor while the two Fleet men looked on, satisfaction riding their faces. Apparently, Captain Xu had not been the only one to receive a letter requesting that the Fleet do all it could to ensure Viktor was arrested. Ankari remained silent, aside from a few glances back toward her comrades. They were still on the opposite side of the store and all of the chaos. Lauren was standing beside Jamie, who looked very much like she wanted to throw up over the railing. That would make a mess on the atrium grounds six stories below.

  Ankari fully expected to be arrested right alongside Viktor—after all, if Security had seen him on the cameras, it would have seen her, Jamie, and Lauren too. But after cuffing him, they led him toward the elevator without stopping for her. The Fleet officers fell in behind the group. Nobody paid any attention to Ankari. All she could do was gape after them, watching as Viktor strode into the elevator. Perhaps not wanting to draw attention to her, he never looked back.

  She wished he would have, that he would have given her a don’t-worry-this-will-be-all-right nod. But the doors closed, and he disappeared from view.

  6

  “I don’t understand,” Jamie said. “Why didn’t they arrest us too?” She had recovered from being struck on the head in the shop, though she still looked in need of medical attention. That blood stood out in her pale blonde hair, and more than one person had glanced in surprise at her when they had come out of the elevator.

  Ankari shook her head as they started down the deserted corridor toward the shuttle bay that Ladybug shared with a dozen other small ships. “We’re nothing. They only wanted him.”

  “Why is he something?” Lauren asked, still clutching her box of rats to her chest.

  Ankari hoped those rats were extremely helpful and caused some great scientific breakthrough to be made, because nothing else this morning had been worth seeing Viktor arrested.

  “He’s just a mercenary,” Lauren added, “one of thousands in the system. In a station this big, there must be a half dozen other mercenary ships docked here at any given time.”

  “I don’t know,” Ankari muttered. “But I aim to figure out why Fleet is gunning for him.”

  Maybe if she got Viktor out of jail, he would realize how valuable she was to him. He would realize that he couldn’t urge her and her partners to set up their business somewhere else. Mandrake Company needed them. He needed her.

  She dipped her hand into her pocket, touching the slender device nestled at the bottom. She hoped Viktor would forgive her for taking it. Even as the security officers had been cuffing him, she had extricated the lock-picking contraption from his pocket. She did not know if it would be useful for breaking a man out of jail, and that wasn’t the first thing she wanted to try to get him out, but she would keep it in mind—and in pocket.

  Ankari, leading the way into the shuttle bay, paused as soon as she stepped across the threshold.

  Jamie bumped into her. “What is it? The depressurization light go on? Nobody should be leaving as long as the quarantine is in effect.”

  “That’s not it,” Ankari murmured.

  She extended her arm past the wall panel that would have been flashing if the space doors were going to be opened and pointed to their shuttle. Even though it was one of the small craft in the cavernous bay and six slots away from the door, there was no missing that pink nose sticking out of the row. Nor did she miss the two black-uniformed men standing in front of it. Fortunately, they were pointing at the craft and talking to each other, and neither looked toward the door.

  Waving for her comrades to back up, Ankari scooted into the corridor again. “We have a problem.”

  “Were those the same Fleet officers that were there to watch the captain get arrested?” Jamie asked.

  Lauren, who had not walked into the shuttle bay, merely raised her eyebrows.

  “No,” Ankari said. “But I recognized one of them. Captain Xu. The fellow whose tablet fell out of his pocket and into my hand.”

  “So we can’t go in?” Lauren frowned down at her box.

  “I most certainly can’t. I’m guessing that if you go in, you’ll be questioned. Perhaps incarcerated and interrogated.” Ankari grimaced. When she had stolen that tablet, she had been thinking of helping Viktor and had accepted that she might put herself at risk in doing so. She hadn’t considered that she might be putting her friends at risk too. Shortsighted. “I’m sorry.”

  “I need to feed and water my rats. I don’t think anyone was tending them in the pet store.”

  “Yes, I’ve heard that can happen when the owner is locked in a vault.”

  Jamie peered into one of the air holes. “Did you end up paying for the rats with all that chaos going on?”

  “I left my aurums on the shelf next to their cage. Whether the coins are still there or were blown up, I don’t know. I was busy attempting to not be blown up myself.”

  “Tell me about it.” Jamie gingerly probed her scalp.

  “Let’s go back to my room. There’s water there, and some of Viktor’s awful ration bars too.” Ankari only took a step before pausing again.

  If the Fleet captain had traced her to her shuttle, might he have figured out what room she had reserved too? Hm. Maybe not. The station was privately owned by Midway 5 Incorporated, which presumably did not answer to the military. Whoever was leasing the space for the hotel should not have a reason to jump to answer to the military, either. At the least, there were enough layers that it should take Xu and his security buddies time to find her.

  “We won’t stay long,” Ankari said,
resuming her walk. “We’ll get another room to make our base until we figure everything out. In Jamie’s name. Or maybe I’ll comm a friend and see if he can reserve it in his name. Or a made-up name.” Ankari grimaced again. Her head hurt. Maybe she had hit it against the wall harder than she remembered during those bombings. Or maybe she was just thinking too much. She would have to face the law sooner or later, assuming Captain Xu had involved the law, because their shuttle wouldn’t be permitted to leave dock if one of its owners was wanted for a crime. Until she figured out how to get Viktor out of jail, she would do her best to avoid Xu. Maybe she would get lucky, and a war would break out nearby, and all of the Fleet ships would be called away.

  “We have clients scheduled,” Lauren said once they had turned into the corridor that led to the hotel.

  “I’ll get in contact with them, see about rescheduling,” Ankari said. “I doubt anyone’s going to want to show up for medical appointments when there’s a mysterious health threat in the air, anyway.”

  “Actually,” Jamie said, “the comm was beeping every thirty seconds while you were gone. I was slightly perturbed that you weren’t there to answer it, given my lack of customer service skills.”

  “You mean your lack of being interested in dealing with customers.”

  “I do prefer interacting with robots and engines.”

  “What did they want?” Ankari couldn’t imagine what would have caused so many calls, unless Xu’s people had been harassing her team. But no, Jamie would have mentioned that and warned her.

  “Microbiota transplants,” Lauren said. “Many people who believed their immune systems were not at one hundred percent, and that an intestinal microflora imbalance might be part of the problem, were suddenly eager to sign up for our service.”

  “You didn’t publish another article, did you?”

  “No,” Lauren said as they entered the hotel lobby. “These people want to be in the best possible condition if there is a deadly virus.”

  Ankari shook her head as they walked down a hallway that was not as deserted as it had been at five in the morning. She watched for Fleet uniforms as they headed for her room. “I’m not convinced there is a virus anymore.”

  “That would be a relief,” Jamie said. “But what makes you think that?”

  “The woman locked in the vault of her own store.”

  “Uh. That’s the person the captain was carrying out?”

  “Yes. I’m still not sure how he got the door open—” Ankari recalled Viktor running around the counter and toward the center of the store, where that second explosive had clanged off a rack. Was it possible that he had grabbed it and planted it close enough to the vault to tear open the door when it exploded? If so, that woman was lucky she had survived. “But somehow she was locked inside a vault behind the counter, knocking and wanting to get out. I suppose I don’t know for sure that it’s the owner, but that ought to be on the news already.” She dug out her tablet and nodded at an android pushing a cart full of folded towels.

  It returned the nod and did not otherwise react to her. Not that she had expected it to, but she was feeling twitchy, worried that she was underestimating Xu and that he might have men waiting at her door here too.

  “How does a locked up store owner negate the possibility of a virus being present?” Jamie asked.

  “It doesn’t seem fishy to you? Someone had to stick her in there. Why?”

  “What if she was trying to save herself from being contaminated by locking herself in?”

  “Seems drastic.”

  They reached the door to the suite without running into any Fleet officers. Ankari swiped them in, even though she was already thinking of a dozen places she wanted to go. Such as to wherever autopsies of those bodies were being done. And to the hospital to question the vault lady as soon as she recovered. She should get in touch with Viktor’s other men, too, the ones also on the station. They would need to know he had been arrested, and he had mentioned something about someone on the ship researching the quarantine, the details that weren’t on the news. She wished she could visit Viktor, too, but showing up at Security headquarters would not be a good idea, right now. No, she would start with network research, and she could do that from her room. If the news people were not publishing anything helpful, then she would go digging.

  As soon as they walked in, Ankari flipped on the holodisplay in the main room. She sat at the desk where only a few hours earlier she had spoken with her mother, trying to convince her that she was not in any danger out here. That might have been overly optimistic.

  “There’s the captain.” Jamie pointed at the holodisplay.

  It was showing the footage from the pet store—some of it. A reporter spoke of the radical group attacking the shop in an attempt to eliminate the animals inside, and also of a mercenary outfit that may have had something to do with the damage inside. Viktor was shown, his face grim and his jaw set as the security officers cuffed him. Ankari scrolled back, but the video did not show him walking out, carrying the woman. The woman was mentioned, however, with a picture of her in a hospital room, her eyes closed as a doctor hovered nearby. The reporter gave her name, Diana Ogilvy, and confirmed that she was the shop owner, but nothing else that came out of the person’s mouth was of use.

  “They made him sound suspicious,” Jamie said. “Like a criminal, not a hero. Why would they do that? Wouldn’t a mercenary who saved ladies from vaults and fires be a good story?”

  “Someone’s out to get him,” Ankari said, feeling an iciness burn through her veins as she imagined this someone, whoever he or she was. She wanted to hurt that person. “I intend to find out why.”

  She wondered if there was anything she could do to get the media to revise their story and share the truth. Probably not. Even before she had committed a crime here, Ankari hadn’t exactly been a powerful member of society with connections. Unless one counted mercenary connections.

  She pulled out her comm unit, thinking she should talk to Garland and see if his people could come up with anything. Unless... She drummed her fingers on the table. Would it be unwise to alert the ship to the captain’s situation? Most of the old crew, those who came from the same destroyed home world as Viktor, seemed loyal to him, but there were others who might take advantage of the fact that he was missing. Was it possible someone would stage a mutiny and convince enough of the crew to go along with it? With Viktor detained on the station, they might simply take the ship and leave. If Viktor ended up being sentenced with some crime, would that even be illegal? To take his ship?

  She rubbed her head, groaning at the idea of figuring out mercenary law. No, Garland might not be the best person to contact. Viktor’s second-in-command was usually running the ship during the nightshift, so she had not spent much time with him. She did not know him well. Someone else might be a better bet, someone with a tie to Viktor and also to her. Or at least to someone in her business.

  “Jamie?” Ankari asked. “Can you get in touch with Sergei?”

  “Of course. Is there something you want me to ask him?”

  “Yes. Does your stealthy assassin think he could sneak onto a secured and quarantined space station?”

  “From what I’ve heard,” Lauren said from across the room where she was dropping small pieces of an egg log into her rat box, “he’s been contemplating trying anyway.”

  “Because he’s missed the captain?” Ankari asked, though she knew that was not the case.

  “Because he’s missed someone.”

  Jamie’s cheeks colored, but she did not deny the statement.

  “The risks people will take to engage in coitus are mystifying to me,” Lauren said.

  Thinking of the elevator, Ankari’s cheeks colored, as well.

  * * *

  Viktor paced the brig, alternating between thinking and wishing he was better at thinking.

  Why did Fleet want him incarcerated? He could understand it more if they wanted him shot. Was it Admiral Petra
kis specifically who wanted him, or had he, as the highest-ranking military man heading to the meeting, been given the task by someone above him? Viktor had never crossed paths with Petrakis and couldn’t summon an image of what he looked like in his mind. Mandrake Company stayed away from the military and never targeted their ships in its operations, but Viktor could still have killed some friend of the admiral’s or ruined some Fleet officer’s plans. It was possible one of the finance lords Mandrake Company had taken out had been tied to the military in some way.

  The letter that Ankari had acquired had said Captain Mandrake and the Albatross would be dealt with when the admiral arrived. Was it possible someone wanted his ship? Or wanted for him not to have his ship?

  He growled at the idea and paced faster. Did someone believe that with him gone, the ship might be taken? The crew inspired to mutiny and leave him? That was always a possibility in a mercenary outfit, but the last few months had been lucrative, despite the Nimbus debacle, because of the deals he had struck. Right now, Mandrake Company was receiving a share of Ankari’s business and also a share of the treasure-hunting business that Lieutenant Thomlin had left to join. Thomlin and his new female friend Kalish Blackwell apparently made an excellent team, because in their first month working together, they had unearthed the remains of one of the original twenty colonies, the one that had been lost when an asteroid struck the planet shortly after the colony ship had landed. Thomlin and Blackwell had uncovered valuable historical artifacts and were in the process of auctioning them, with Mandrake Company receiving a percentage of each sale.

  Viktor halted, a new thought lurching into his mind. “Thomlin. Of course.”

  During the mission where Thomlin had met Blackwell, Mandrake Company had helped them pull a couple of ancient alien spaceship engines out of a cavern system, along with a projector that produced far more realistic holo images than the current technology could manage. When the device had created a fleet of alien ships in the air, they had appeared real on the sensors, and Thomlin had said it had been possible to walk about on the hull of a ship that had been on the ground. Of course, the treasure hunters had needed to trade the device and one of the engines to Commodore Parsons in order to escape the Fleet’s clutches, but Viktor had insisted a schematic be made before releasing the projector. During the Nimbus fighting, his engineers had been too busy keeping the Albatross together to work on creating a physical version, but the information was still in the ship’s database.