He hit the deck with a crack, landing on his knees.
Ouch, she thought. She’d done that before.
Quickly and playfully, now in full flow and remembering her art, she swung a roundhouse kick across the side of his head, whipping his head sideways on his neck. He fell forward and face-planted on the polished floorboards next to his friend.
She looked up, hearing scuffling and voices down the hall. She checked the first room. No car out of the window.
Two more black-suited guns for hire came out of the room at the far end. They immediately opened fire, but Molly managed to dive and take cover in the second room. Seeing the car outside, she sprinted for it and lunged out the window.
The boots were coming after her. They appeared at the door and started firing just as she scrambled into the car. Oz dropped their altitude to catch her and to take them out of the firing line, while a shower of bullets narrowly missed her and the car.
Settling her ass into the passenger seat, she grabbed the side of it and she shifted herself around enough to close the gull-winged door behind her.
As soon as she had her balance, she shouted. “Drive drive DRIVE!”
A moment later she had the door properly sealed and her seatbelt on. Joel punched the hyperdrive to get them onto the strato highway before anyone could follow them.
At the same time, the police arrived on site, and flooded the building with SWAT and detectives. Letting witnesses escape was going to be the least of the problems for the remaining members of the security team.
Strato highway between Kensington Quarter and Spaceport
Molly stared out of the window up at the scattered old stars of the Loop Galaxy.
At a different time of year she might have been able to glimpse the band of stars called the Pan Galaxy. The ancient humans had called it the Milky Way. Molly never had understood why.
The Pan galaxy had long been swallowing up the Loop, one cluster at a time. Eon by eon, the two collided under unfathomable forces.
Molly wondered what lives were being lived on distant systems like the one where Bethany Anne had come from. Or the one her great-grandparents had fled. She wondered about the races that had come together to live collectively and cooperatively, and the ones that had continued to wage war across whatever silly bit of territory they convinced themselves they owned.
She thought about how they were doing in comparison to these other systems. Here, they had Estarians and Oggs, Secorians and Teshovians, peppered with the occasional human cities and groups. They’d survived like this for a few centuries at least, but there were still telltale signs of the years before the Great Unrest. There were still prejudices and class systems and unconscious, as well as conscious, exclusions.
She felt it every time she walked into a bar, or every time she needed to declare her human designation on a government form.
And as much as it made her feel uncomfortable and out of place, the Sark System was her home. And very soon she was going to have to leave it.
“You doing okay?” Joel looked across at her. Even though Oz was doing the driving, he still felt the need to keep an eye on the road.
Paige was asleep in the backseat, exhausted from the whole ordeal. Joel had given her something to help with the anxiety, and it had probably helped her to sleep.
“Yeah. Lucky to be alive, I guess”, answered Molly, uncharacteristically contemplative.
“Yeah. Not often severe inebriation actually saves your life. Definitely one of those stories that will become legendary as we build up this team,” his gentle chuckle helped her accept his very mild rebuke.
Molly smiled sheepishly.
She glanced over at him. “Hey, look. I’m sorry about before. The trading, and Oz. I just…I didn’t think, and when you called me on it, it just made me feel like I couldn’t do anything right.” She paused a moment before adding, “I’m sorry I reacted so badly.”
Joel could tell she was sorry. Molly couldn’t tell if that was forgiveness or pity in his eyes, though.
“It’s okay, ass-munch. I went in pretty hard on you. I expect you to think like I do, but I know at your core,” he breathed deeply and let it out, “you’re a geek.”
She looked over at him, raising an eyebrow, “Was that meant to sound patronizing?”
“Just a little,” he grinned. Molly knew he had a point.
“I’m going to put it all right. We’ll find the money some other way—a way that you agree with. And I’ll talk these things through with you in the future.”
“And I’ll look forward to lots of interesting, productive debates.” He laughed, and Molly slapped him gently on his side.
“Seriously, though. I get it. As a scientist, you’re bound to process these decisions differently. And that is going to be one of our strengths as a team.”
She snorted. “And you think like a human being, and that’s going to allow us to actually keep a team.” Molly replied, half in jest, but inside she knew it was true. “I’ll keep learning. One day, Joel Dunham. One day I’ll make you proud of my people abilities.”
He looked around before glancing over at her, “Just as long as you keep your geekiness too.”
Paige had woken up a little; she felt drowsy and anxious at the same time. She’d traded a few messages back and forth with Garet before they started driving. Molly had warned her that the jammer was deactivated and any of Dewitt’s people might still be trying to locate them, but it was just so hard not to be in contact.
In Garet’s last message, he’d promised her he’d find the best restaurant in whatever godforsaken off-world community they ended up in, and take her for pizza to celebrate her successful survival.
If she were honest, she couldn’t wait for some semblance of normalcy. She used to crave adventure but today wasn’t the kind of adventure she had meant. She sighed, and let the drowsiness help her drift off again.
“So, did you kill Dewitt?” Joel looked across again at Molly, having made sure that Oz was steering them in the right direction.
Molly glanced back at Paige, as if to say “not in front of the children.”
Joel took the hint, but Molly answered quietly anyway. “My weapon was set to stun. But I used his. You?”
“Nope. Didn’t even need to fire it.” He paused looking out at the road, but clearly wanting to say something.
Molly watched him. Waiting.
Joel glanced at her, his eyes making contact. “You know, you’ve crossed a line you can’t uncross.”
She nodded. He looked back at the road, then returned to her. “You ok?”
She nodded again.
Joel thought she looked numb. Her chest had collapsed in, probably because of the weight of what had just happened. Her shoulders were tense and her facial expression blank.
He wanted to reach over and hold her, but he couldn’t. For one, it was damned awkward in the car. Second, Paige was there and finally, Molly was skittish about that kind of thing at the best of times.
And even if she did just need to be wrapped up in his arms and reassured right now, she’d never tell him.
We’re arriving at the port in thirty seconds.
“Okay, we’re almost there,” Molly communicated, rousing herself from the numbness. She gathered up the bag she’d been nursing on her lap since just after her dramatic entrance into the vehicle.
Oz took them down to ground level and into the driveway entrance. They gave their names at the security gate, and followed the Ogg’s directions around to hangar 08771A.
As they approached, they noticed a car following them in. Oz pulled the car over right outside their hangar, and the other car tucked in behind them on the towpath.
“Looks like our boys,” remarked Joel. “Ready to meet the gentlemen who are going to get us off-world?” he called back to Paige, who was now mostly awake again.
“You betcha!” Despite having been kidnapped, nearly killed, and feeling a little drugged and sleepy still, her spirits were high
.
Joel had seen it before. It was the relief. It wouldn’t last. He knew that within twelve hours she would crash and probably hit some form of depression or post-traumatic stress. And that’s when she’d need them and Garet the most.
That’s when she would need to belong to a team that had her back and was on her side. As a twenty-five-year-old half Estarian/half human, she was probably no stranger to being an outsider, so Joel prepared himself for the potential difficulty of getting through to her.
He knew what he was going to do for the next twelve hours: anchor in as much friendship and team spirit and support with her as he could, so she had something to hold on to.
Nothing could get in the way of this.
He just needed to make sure he briefed Molly on his plan too. Not that she’d deliberately throw a spanner in the works, but Molly was Molly.
They emptied out of the car and made their greetings to Crash and Brock.
“What’s your real name?” Paige asked Crash.
“Chris Ashworth. But that’s just too boring, so I go by my call sign,” he grinned.
“Yes, boring and straight-laced, which ain't nothing like your personality!” teased Brock, waving his fingers like he was sprinkling his old friend with fairy dust.
“So, you guys know each other?” Paige asked innocently.
Crash hesitated.
Brock took over the conversation. “You bet we know each other. We served together for eight looooong years. We have some war stories to tell you later.” He draped his arm around Paige, and wandered over to the hangar door. Joel wondered for a moment if Brock could tell what she had been through, or whether he was always just this friendly. Something told him Brock wasn’t interested in girls, and that made him spontaneously bringing Paige under his wing all the sweeter. He smiled to himself.
The team really seemed to be bonding instinctively.
“Okay, let’s get this baby open!” announced Molly, pulling up the holo details and rallying her new gang over to the hangar door.
She went through the unlocking procedure that she’d been sent by the vendors in the event that they wouldn’t be present for the handover.
After a sequence of retinal scans and code confirmations, the handover was complete. She keyed the final code into a different keypad to open the hangar door.
The enormous door rolled upwards, revealing the interior one rotation on the cog at a time.
“WHOOP!” a sudden yell occurred in the quiet. “That is one badass motherfucker of a ship!” exclaimed Brock, echoing everyone’s thoughts.
“Can we call it ‘Serenity’?” he asked, referencing the famous human sci-fi show from the archives.
Crash was straight in with a response. “No, we damn well can’t! You know what happened to that bird? I ain’t doing no leaf in the wind kinda shit.”
The group erupted in laughter. All except Joel, who just looked at them, having completely missed the reference.
“We’ll name her eventually,” said Molly. “But right now, we need to get off-world as soon as possible. Any news on the supplies?” She looked to Brock and Crash.
Crash responded. “No, nothing. And we asked the gate to let us know if anything came in.”
Okay, Oz, can you check into that and let them know we have possession, so we’re ready for them any time now?
On it.
She turned back to the group. “The sellers assured me she was ready to fly, and all the paperwork says so too. But we need to do our own checks as part of the taking-possession sequence.” She turned back to Crash and Brock. “That’s why you gentlemen are here at this godforsaken hour.”
“Nah uh. That’s why I am here,” Brock corrected her. Then he jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “He’s just here to look pretty, you know what I mean?”
The group laughed again.
“Anyway, I’ve got work to do. Have they sent over the checklists and manuals yet?” Crash asked Molly.
Molly looked at her holo. “Yeah, lemme send the bundle to you both and then you can get going.” Molly pulled up the info packs they needed and bumped holos with them each in turn, transferring the files.
Joel stepped in, getting the rest of the group organized.
“All right, we have a plan. Crash and Brock will get going with the possession checks and preflight, and take receipt of the supplies when they get here. The rest of us will get back to the safe house to pack up and collect Garet. Then we’ll meet back here soon as we can.”
Everyone seemed to be in agreement. As Joel and Paige got back into the car, Molly told Crash and Brock, “if you need anything, just holo. Parts, approvals, anything.”
The pair nodded.
“How are you fixed for leaving when we’re set? Say by noon tomorrow? Is that reasonable for the checks?” She glanced at Brock to see if her request was practical.
Crash answered instead. “Yeah. It’s possible. I’ll need to cycle back home to pick up my kit, but that works for me. Brock?”
“Yo, I’m ready to go as soon as this bird is. My gear is in my car.”
The two looked happy. They had their work cut out for them, but this was the mission of a lifetime—and they got to call the shots without any technical supervisors or interference.
“Excellent.” Molly grinned at their forming team.
Molly got into the car while talking with Oz in her head.
Okay, we still need to find a safe house. When we leave tomorrow, we need to know what direction we’re going, at least. Can you draw up a short list based on the criteria we already started working on?
Of course. I’ll have something for you to review soon.
Perfect.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The Dewitt Residence, Kensington Quarter
Detective Chaakwa Indius stood in the middle of one of the most beautiful kitchens she’d ever seen, looking over the mangled body of William Dewitt.
He was riddled with bullet holes; someone wasn’t leaving his demise to chance.
The rest of her team circulated, collecting intel and assisting the forensic science teams. There were blood samples in this room and the one above. Some were already known to be Estarian, but there was one Estarian/human sample. That would narrow the search down.
She wandered through the living room, where everything was pretty much undisturbed.
“Make sure we get 3D scans of everything. I want to be able to walk every room of this place in simulation down the line; this was a hit. We need to treat it as such. We’ll find the sons of bitches that did this”
“Never had you pegged as a homicide kinda girl.”
She looked up. There was a handsome Ogg standing in the doorway, casually taking notes on his holo.
“I never had you pegged as a guy who crashed other officers’ crime scenes,” she responded without missing a beat.
“Good to see you, Chaakwa,” he replied, smiling.
“You too. Now get out of my crime scene,” she grinned back.
“Captain said you might need some help. Purely advisory, of course. I know better than to poach your cases.”
Awakened Page 24
